By Adedapo Adesanya
A few weeks after signing Executive Order Number 10 which grants financial autonomy state assemblies and judiciary, President Muhammadu Buhari has suspended the order.
The Nigerian president made the suspension on Monday, following concerns raised by state governors.
The order mandates the accountant-general of the federation to deduct from source amount due to state legislatures and judiciary from the monthly allocation to each state for states that refuse to grant such autonomy.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, said in May, that the Executive Order No. 10 of 2020, made it mandatory that all states of the federation should include the allocations of both the legislature and the judiciary in the first-line charge of their budgets.
According to Mr Malami – “A Presidential Implementation Committee was constituted to fashion out strategies and modalities for the implementation of financial autonomy for the State Legislature and State Judiciary in compliance with section 121(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as Amended).”
Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Mr Kayode Fayemi, announced the suspension of the implementation of the order to State House correspondents in Abuja on Monday.
Speaking after a meeting the governors had with Chief of Staff to the president, Mr Ibrahim Gambari, and some ministers in attendance, Mr Fayemi said the president suspended the implementation of the order over the governors’ concerns.
The governors had expressed reservations over the order which Mr Buhari signed to make the state legislature and judiciary more independent by ensuring their finances get directly to them.
The Ekiti State Governor said after listening to their concerns about the constitutionality of the new order, the president agreed that the implementation of the order would be delayed pending further consultations.
“We have a delegation of the governors’ forum here to discuss some matters of fundamental importance to the nation and the president has asked that we meet with the attorney general, the chief of staff, and the minister of finance planning and budget on the issue.
“It is an issue that has seized the interest of many of you in the media and a lot of people in the federation, it is about the autonomy of the state legislature and the judiciary and we’ve met with the president before now on it and the president was very pleased that for us as governors, we are all united in support of the autonomy of state judiciary and the legislature; that’s the position of the 36 Governors of the federation.
“What is at issue is on the constitutionality of the modalities of what had been put in the executive order and the president was gracious enough to say ‘okay, given your concerns about that, we will delay the gazetting of the order and allow you meet with the attorney general and the minister of finance to work out the modalities,” he said.
Mr Fayemi said the governors were already meeting with speakers of state houses of assembly on ensuring autonomy for the legislature.
He said: “In any case, we have been meeting at our level with the conference of Speakers. The Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum; Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto State, was delegated as the Chair of a number of Governors who have gained legislative experience either because they were in the House of Representatives or they were Speakers of State Assemblies, or they were Senators and that committee has been meeting with a delegation of the Conference of Speakers, working out this modalities and we believe that all of that would be settled amicably without any resort to court.”
Some of the attendees at the meeting include the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami.
The meeting hosted by the Chief of Staff to the President and was also attended by Mr Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and his Kebbi State counterpart, Mr Abubakar Bagudu.