INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION RELEASES ELECTION CALENDAR FOR 2019 ELECTION YEAR

-Presidential guards take over National Assembly as Buhari presents 2017 Budget today

President Muhammadu Buhari will today, December 14 visit the National Assembly

- Buhari will present the 2017 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the legislature

- This is Buhari’s second budget since he assumed office in May 2015

President Muhammadu Buhari will today, December 14 present the 2017 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly by 10 am.

President Buhari had expressed optimism that the 2017 budget will Nigeria out of recession

The president will be accompanied to the National Assembly by top federal government functionaries to lay the document which will be the second since he assumed office in May 2015.

The Federal Executive Council had on Wednesday, November 30 approved the document for presentation to the National Assembly.

“The 2017 budget has been approved by the Federal Executive Council and the details will be revealed when the president presents the budget to the National Assembly,” minister of budget and national planning, Udoma Udo Udoma told state house correspondents after the meeting.

Udoma recently told the Senate Joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance that the federal government will issue new oil licences in 2017.

According to the minister, the federal government would also review the current joint venture arrangements with oil companies, marginal oil fields as well as mount pressure on revenue generating agencies to surpass expected targets.

All these are part of the government’s effort to explore new streams of revenues as the economic recession in the nation bites harder.

NAIJ.com gathered that the presidential guards have taken over the complex while some of the workers have been given a day off today.

In a related development, President Buhari has expressed optimism that the 2017 budget would take Nigeria out of economic recession.

The president said with collective dedication and hard work, Nigerians would in 2017 overcome the economic difficulties, and return the country to the path of prosperity.