On the Executive Order 10

On June 8, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law a bill granting financial autonomy and independence to the 36 states’ Houses of Assembly and their judiciaries.

That was afterthe 8th Assembly had passed the bill and forwarded same to the president for his assent.

The legislation was a reaction to a long-time yearningby stakeholders for financial autonomy for the state legislature and the judiciary who had always gone ‘cap in hands’to ‘beg’ the executive for funds to run theiraffairs.

The National Assembly passed the legislation against the wish of sitting governors.

The legislation specifically altered the provision of Section 121 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to plug the loopholes encountered in the discharge of the functions of state parliaments and judiciaries by placing both the states’ judiciaries and houses of assembly on the First Line Charge of the states’ Consolidated Revenue Account.

The implication is that the amounts standing to the credit of the judiciary are now to be paid directly to the judiciary of those states, no more through the governors and no more from the governors and then the amounts standing to the credit of the Houses of Assembly of the respective states are now to be paid directly to the Houses of Assembly of that state for the benefit of the legislators and the management of the States’ Houses of Assembly.

The law effectively grants full autonomy to both the judiciary and the Houses of Assembly at the state level.

The amendments are expected to be self-executing.

But since the bill was signed into law, the state governors have refused to implement it.

More than a year after the law had been left unimplemented, the Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly took it upon itself to lobby for its implementation.

Sequel to the move, the President decided to set up a Committee headed by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami( SAN) to work out the modalities for implementation of the law.

The outcome of the deliberations by the committee birthed the Executive Order 10.

According to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, the Presidential Executive Orders are aimed at complementing the existing legislations and ensure inter-agency coordination in the process of implementation.

“By way of example, therefore, if the Federal Government wants to withhold the resources of a State Government that refuses to comply with the constitutional provision relating to the autonomy of State Legislatures and Judiciary, then the Federal Government may require the services of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation,” Malami said.

He said such orders are naturally intended to force constitutional compliance like the instant case.

TheExecutive Order 10 was signed on Friday, May 22, 2019 by President Buhari.

He signed the order into law based on the power vested in him as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under Section 5 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

The section vested him with powers of execution and maintenance of the Constitution and all laws made by the National Assembly including but not limited to the instant Section 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution.

While the Chairman of Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures in Nigeria, Mudashiru Obasa, said the body was excited over the Executive Order 10, some lawyers and lawmakers opined that the order was unnecessarybecause there was no rationale for an executive order on a constitutional matter.

Since the return to democracy in 1999, each successive government in Nigeria has signed a number of executive orders.

More often than not, the news of the signing of a new executive order is usually greeted with either condemnation, applause or mixed reactions like the instant case.

We at the Daily Times note that the issue of financial autonomy for state legislature and judiciary is a constitutional matter whichthe state governors ought to have long complied with, the legislation having been signed into law.

We are surprised that the state governors had refused to implement the legislation almost two years after it became law

Which is why we are glad that Mr President signed the executive order in the discharge of his constitutional role as enshrined in section 5 of the 1999 Constitution to compel compliance by the state governors.

We have always detested the idea of heads of Houses of Assembly and particularly the judiciaries in the statesgoing ‘caps in hand’ to the governors, to ‘beg’ for funds to run their affairs.

We believe that with the legislation on financial autonomy in place, the three arms of government will now function independently and transparently.

We also applaud the step taken by the president because we view it as part obeisance to the judgment of the Federal High Court delivered in 2013 in a suit filed by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), wherein the federal government and state governments were ordered to grant financial autonomy to the judiciary.