By Soni Daniel & Henry Umoru

ABUJA — The Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Joy Emodi, said yesterday that President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly were still working on the 2013 budget and expressed optimism he would soon sign it into law.

Emordi said that contrary to widely held notion that the budget had been with the President for close to two months, it was actually sent to him on January 14, 2013.

The former lawmaker did not, however, say whether the President was happy or not with ‘’padding” of the budget with N63 billion by lawmakers, their insistence that oil benchmark must remain at $79 per barrel and their position that no kobo would be approved for the Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, until the President sacked the Director General, Orunma Oteh.

Emordi said: “For the records, though the 2013 Budget was passed by the National Assembly in December, the budget details were actually transmitted to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on the night of January 14, 2013; and this, as I noted some time ago, is understandable given that it is a thorough and time-taking exercise for the National Assembly.”

“Knowing that this is one of the most critical policy and development documents with extensive impact on the socio-economic life of the nation, Mr. President, just like the National Assembly, is also carefully studying the details.”

Emordi said she did not see anything wrong with the extra time taken by the President to study the budget he prepared and that it did not amount to any row.

According to her the important thing is that “both the National Assembly and the Executive are committed to moving the country forward.

Vanguard had reported exclusively that the disagreement between the two tiers of government over the three items in the budget was unduly delaying the assent by the President.

Well-placed sources had hinted that the President was unhappy over the conditions imposed by the lawmakers and had threatened to return the budget to the National Assembly if the issues were not resolved.