The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) has asked President
Muhammadu Buhari to allow its members work out their own modalities on
financial autonomy for the judiciary and the legislature at the state level,
The Nation reports.
The president on May 22 signed the order granting financial
autonomy to the legislature and the judiciary in the 36 states of the
federation.
The order empowered the accountant-general of the federation
to deduct funds for the state legislature and the judiciary from the federal
allocations to the states.
“Based on this order, where any state of the federation
fails to release allocations meant for the state legislature and state
judiciary, the accountant-general of the federation shall authorise deduction
of the money from source,” the order read.
According to The Nation, state governors faulted the
approach of the president, saying it was unnecessary and unconstitutional.
It said Kayode Fayemi, chairman of the NGF, was nominated to
meet with the president and Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the
federation, to relate the concerns of the governors.
“We mandated the NGF chairman, Dr Kayode Fayemi to have an
audience with the President and Malami to avoid recourse to legal tussle on the
interpretation of Section 121 (3) of the 1999 constitution,” the newspaper
quoted a governor from the north-central as saying.
“We prefer dialogue to confrontation because we consider
Executive Order 10 as unnecessary and an over-kill of the existing
constitutional provision. You can see that in the last few days, AGF Malami has
been trying to justify EO 10.
“And the NGF chairman on Thursday had closed door sessions
with the President, where all the defects in EO 10 were spelt out.
“In another meeting with Malami on Thursday, the two parties
agreed that some of the autonomy modalities were constitutionally flawed. The session
reviewed the reservations of the governors.
“There will be a follow up with the AGF and minister of
justice by the NGF legal committee comprising the governors of Sokoto, Plateau
and Ondo states.”
“For a federating nation, there are so many extraneous
clauses in EO 10 which are in conflict with the 1999 Constitution,” another
governor was quoted to have said.
“For instance, Section 7 7(a) of the order made provision
for a Presidential Implementation Committee to ensure compliance.
“For instance, in some states, there is already
appropriation law for the state legislature and the Judiciary. Of what use is
this E0 10 then?
“In most states, we have a joint account allocation
committee. Are we saying that EO 10 is superior to a state’s law enacted by the
house of assembly?
“Instead of rushing to issue EO 10, the appropriate thing
for the Federal Government is to sit down with the governors and agree on
autonomy modalities in line with Section 121(3) of the constitution.”
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