Governors list conditions for financial autonomy to judiciary, legislative

By Kamarudeen Ogundele

As the strike embarked upon by the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) enters the fourth week, while that of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) enters the 10th day, governors have listed conditions that must be met to grant financial autonomy to the judiciary and legislature.

The governors are billed to meet the leadership of the two unions and other stakeholders today at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja tonight (Wednesday).

Daily Times recalls that the National leadership of JUSUN in a circular dated April 1, ordered the closure of courts nationwide as from April 6.

The order followed the expiration of a 21-day ultimatum to the government to implement full financial autonomy of the judiciary.

PASAN declared the indefinite strike on March 22 over non-implementation of financial autonomy for the state legislature.

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In May 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari signed an Executive Order 10 granting financial autonomy to the legislature and judiciary across the 36 states.

The gazetting of the order was, however, suspended after the president met with governors — triggering rumours that the governors were frustrating the move.

The governors, who found the order vexatious, later challenged the order in court.

Speaking after a meeting of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) on Tuesday in Abuja, the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said the governors were ready to grant financial autonomy but there were conditions that must be met.

He said, “We were not consulted when the executive order 10 came. When the law is passed, you don’t wake up one day and say you want to implement. There must be processes. You can’t talk about financial autonomy without having a service commission in your place.

“You must establish a state allocation committee….all these are steps toward autonomy… you don’t achieve autonomy in a day. We did it at the National Assembly and there was no order 10 for implementation. The Federal Government is aware, it took them stages.

“We have members of the National Assembly who are today governors, how can they say they don’t want financial autonomy? We have seven governors who were members of the national assembly who fought for autonomy and got it for national assembly. So, it is a process.”

The governors expressed fury at the manner the Federal Government enacted the executive Order 10 to pit the workers against them.

Lalong said the federal government failed to realize that it could not impose its ways on the federating units.

Besides, the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum said the federal government played down the efforts of the governors in passing the financial autonomy law, which according to him, was their brain-child.

He said, “The executive order 10 is not law but financial autonomy is law. Now, the implementation of the financial autonomy was what, according to them, led to the enactment of order 10.

“For us as governors we said no. We don’t need any order 10 to force us to implement the law. We are working on the implementation because the federal government cannot tell us how to implement.

“I was a speaker, we started it 1999. We brought it every year to the constitution review… it was failing. Today, I’m a governor, and I know how the governors agreed and brought in financial autonomy. It was a law agreed to by the governors. When we became governors we all agreed to pass the law in our states.

“I’m a lawyer, so I would want the judiciary to be autonomous. I was a Speaker and now a member of the executive. We are interested in strengthening the institutions.”