Acting President Goodluck Jonathan will finally sign the 2010 Appropriation Bill today nearly one month after it was passed by the National Assembly..

Mr. Jonathan said he delayed his assent because of some discrepancies he discovered while going through the document.

At the meeting of the Executive Council of the Federation yesterday, the acting president announced that he would only sign the budget when the issues he had raised with leadership of the National Assembly are resolved. Mr. Jonathan had met with the lawmakers at his Aguda residence on Tuesday night to work out the differences.

The delay in signing the budget was one of the major issues deliberated at the weekly council meeting which lasted for three hours. However, hours after the meeting, the Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President, Ima Niboro, said that his boss will be signing the budget at 10.00am today.

Although the statement did not say wether the acting president met with the leadership of the National Assembly after the council meeting, a source said that the issues complained about by Mr Jonathan have been resolved.

Apart from the 2010 budget, the council meeting which featured no memos, also discussed Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee celebration.

Almost all the ministers were in attendance, and some of the new ministers who have yet to understand the terrain, got lost on their way to the chambers where the meeting usually holds.

The reason for delay

Earlier, while briefing the media on the outcome of the meeting, the Minister of State for Information and Communications, Labaran Maku, promised a speedy resolution of the budget issue.

“The acting president is still studying the budget and having discussions with the leadership of the National Assembly to resolve the discrepancies. In a few days, this will be concluded and the budget will be signed probably before the end of this week.”

Mr. Jonathan, it was gathered, was not comfortable with the huge gap between the N4.07 trillion he presented to the National Assembly, and the N4.6 trillion the lawmakers approved and sent to him for assent.

“In all democrac[ies], there is always the discrepancy between what the executive gives and what the legislatures [give]. The legislatures have oversight duties on how the resources of Nigeria should be used. They have a constitutional role and there is hardly any democracy where the budget returning to executive remains the same,” said Mr. Maku.

“What the legislature does is that it looks at the areas it believes are important, which have been overlooked by the executive. And the executive, that has the constitutional duty of managing the economy, will now look at the implication of those variations in relation to the law, [and] in relation to what the national economy can afford, to ensure that what is approved generate the economy rather than creating more problems. I am sure in the end, what comes up will be for the good of Nigeria.”

He added that the acting president was concerned about the time wasted and the failure of past budgets. The minister, however, could not say which specific areas caused the discrepancies, stating that there were no figures tabled for discussion at the council meeting.

Problems in the past

On November 24, 2009, President Umaru Yar’Adua presented a budget proposal of N4.07 trillion for the 2010 fiscal year to the National Assembly. However, the budget was not passed until after four months and the country’s planned spending for the year was raised to around N4.3 trillion ($30 billion more) by the federal lawmakers.

The National Assembly eventually passed a budget of N4,608,616,278,213, of which N180,279,158,994 was for statutory transfer, while N497,071,797,452 was earmarked for debt service. N2,077,358,560,347 was billed for recurrent expenditures, and N1,853,906,761,420 was for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending 31 December 2010.

It was based on a projection of $67 per barrel of oil and crude oil production of 2.350 million barrels per day. The joint venture cash call projection was $7billion, with a GDP of 5.47 percent, an inflation rate of 11.2 percent, and an exchange rate of N150 to a US dollar.

The budget had included some additions and adjustments by the executive in the sum of N336 billion, which raised the executive proposal from N4, 079 trillion to N4, 415 trillion.

Golden Jubilee celebration

On the preparation of the nation’s 50th year celebration, Mr. Maku said it will be coordinated by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

As part of the measures to make it an integrated national affair, the council encouraged both states and local governments to make sure their preparations complemented the federal government’s plan, in an effort to make the celebrations grand and worthy of a nation’s golden jubilee.

Nigeria’s Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan yesterday arrived the United States of America for a four-day working visit during which he will participate in the international Nuclear Security Summit to be hosted by US President Barack Obama.

Mr. Jonathan, who was on his first official visit to a foreign country since he assumed leadership was scheduled to meet with Mr Obama at 5-30pm (11.30pm Nigerian time) and is expected to have lunch with US Vice President Joe Biden today.

Details of the meeting with Mr Obama were not known at press time, but a presidential source said the US had previously indicated interest in electoral reform, returning peace to the Niger Delta, the country’s unity, and Nigeria’s cooperation in the war against terrorism and nuclear proliferation, so these will probably form the focus of the discussions.

A Nigerian, Farouk Abdulmutallab, is facing trial in the US for attempting to blow up a US plane over Detroit on Christmas day and this led the American government to put Nigeria on its list of ‘countries of interest’ in terrorism.

The acting president arrived the Andrews Airforce Base, Virginia, at 9.30am local time (3.30pm Nigerian time) and was received by US Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders; her Nigerian counterpart, Ade Adefuye and other ranking Nigerian and US officials.

The Andrews Airforce Base is reserved for use by select foreign leaders and special dignitaries of the American government.

Mr Jonathan was accompanied on the trip by Foreign Affairs Minister, Odein Ajumogobia and former Nigerian ambassador to the US, Hassan Adamu.

On arrival, he proceeded to Westin Grand Hotel, Washington DC, where he was received by governors of Imo, Edo and Zamfara States, Ikedi Ohakim, Adams Oshiomhole and Aliyu Shinkafi; as well as Joy Ogwu, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) and other top diplomats at both the Washington DC mission and the UN office.

Important meetings

The acting president’s itinerary, released by presidential officials, shows that after lunch with Mr Biden, he will proceed for a meeting with the President of the World Bank, at the World Bank Building, also in Washington DC and later, in the evening, join other visiting Heads of Government and delegations for a working dinner with Mr Obama.

Hilary Clinton, the US Secretary of State and her energy counterpart, Steven Chu, will host Mr Ajumogobia and Diezani Allison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resources.

Tomorrow, Mr Jonathan will join other world leaders for the first plenary session of the Nuclear Security Summit before proceeding for a working lunch with the US president. He will thereafter participate in the second plenary, which marks the end of the nuclear summit.

The Acting President will begin his schedule for Wednesday with a breakfast meeting with officials of the Centre for Global Development in Washington DC. The governors of Imo, Edo, Rivers and Zamfara along with the foreign affairs, petroleum and finance ministers are expected to be in attendance.

He will later meet with members of the Nigerian community in the US and the President of ExxonMobil Oil Company. These meetings are also to be attended by the governors and the ministers, along with other presidential aides.

The Acting President returns to Nigeria on Wednesday, 14th April,2010.

Closing gaps

Mr. Jonathan’s trip to the US also marks the first time in almost three years that a Nigerian leader will be visiting the US. Nigeria’s president, Umaru Yar’Adua studiously refused to visit the US after the caustic comments of US officials on the election that brought him to power. His ill health also stopped him from attending the United Nations General Assembly meeting which held in New York - leaving the former foreign affairs minister, Ojo Maduekwe, to meet US and UN officials.

Mr Obama pointedly avoided Nigeria during his last trip to Africa but he used his trip to Ghana to lecture African leaders on the virtue of free elections and financial accountability.

Commiserates with Poland

Mr Jonathan, yesterday sent his condolences to the acting president of Poland, Bronislaw Koromowshi and the Polish people over the death of President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, and other ranking officials of the Polish government in a plane crash on Saturday.

He described the incident as tragic, noting that Poland had, in one fell swoop, lost the commanding heights of its political leadership.

“On behalf of the Government and people of Nigeria, I condole with your good self and the people of Poland over the death of President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, high ranking officials of your Government and other nationals in the tragic plane crash of Saturday.

“Poland has lost some of its best and brightest to this accident, and Nigeria mourns with you at this moment of grief.”