I won’t sign budget in a hurry, says Buhari

Hehehe.....President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday ruled out the possibility of signing the 2016 Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly last week early as expected by Nigerians and other stakeholders.He said before he would append his signature to the document, he would do a ministry-by-ministry review of the budget to ensure that what had been returned to him was the same with what his
administration submitted to the National Assembly.According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President spoke on Thursday during a meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, in Washington DC.Buhari is currently in the US for the 4th Nuclear Security Summit.He insisted that he would review the bill critically before assenting to it.He said the thorough review was necessitated by alteration and padding of the budget proposals which were carried out by some unnamed persons.The President said there was the need to review the appropriation bill to be certain that its contents tallied with the authentic budget proposal presented to the National Assembly.“Some bureaucrats removed what we put in the proposal and replaced them with what they wanted. I have to look at the bill that has been passed by the National Assembly, ministry by ministry, to be sure that what has been brought back for me to sign is in line with our original submission,” Buhari said.The President also used the opportunity of the meeting to promise that his administration would continue to vigorously prosecute its war against corruption.He sought and received an assurance from Kerry that the US would facilitate the repatriation of all stolen Nigerian funds found within the American banking system.“It will greatly help our country if you assist us to recover all our stolen funds which we can establish to be within your financial system,” the President told Kerry.Responding, the Secretary of State said he had been told that the stolen Nigerian funds were in “billions of dollars”.