Financial autonomy for state legislature, judiciary has come to stay – FG

Yusuf Bello| The federal government on Wednesday said that the executive order seeking to implement financial autonomy for state legislature and judiciary has come to stay.

Abubakar Malami, minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation, who made the disclosure in a statement, said the government will gazette the order after consultations with governors.

According to the statement, financial autonomy for state legislature and the judiciary remains sacrosanct but that the federal government will implement the order in line with modalities reached with the governors.

The statement read, “The re-enforcement of the constitutional provisions on the autonomy of the state legislature and judiciary as contained in Section 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria necessitated the Executive Order No 0010.”

“While congratulating Nigerians on this landmark historic achievement geared toward engendering democratic principles at the grassroots, the Minister called on more inter-agency support for the Order which he said will accelerate development Nigerian masses have been clamouring for.

“In furtherance of the implementation of the Order, the Federal Government and Nigerian Governors’ Forum are jointly working on modalities for effective implementation of the order.”

Malami further stated that the end result of the consultation with governors would reflect their “valuable submissions” to ensure “practicable implementation” of the executive order.

Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti state governor and chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), said earlier in the week tat President Muhammadu Buhari suspended gazetting the order after meeting with the governors.

According to Fayemi, the president directed the governors to meet with some government officials over their complaints especially regarding the constitutionality of the executive order.