Insist on constitution's provisions at meetings with President,
Ekweremadu faults financial autonomy for state legislatures, judiciary
State governors on Friday took their case on Executive Order 10 which guarantees financial autonomy for the judiciary and the legislature at the state level directly to President
Chairman of the
To the governors, the order is not only unnecessary; it is also an over-kill of Section 121(3) of the 1999
They have a supporter in the immediate past Senate Deputy President Ike Ekweremadu, who said that while the intent of the President in signing the order might be good, the action was unnecessary and unconstitutional.
Ekweremadu said that the President should have stopped only at signing the bill on the financial autonomy as passed by the 8th
The governors, during a virtual meeting earlier in the week, mandated Fayemi to pass their views on the order to the appropriate quarters.
It was gathered that Fayemi met with the President and Malami on Thursday, accordingly.
A North-Central governor, who spoke in confidence, said: 'We mandated the NGF chairman, Dr.
'We prefer dialogue to confrontation because we consider Executive Order 19 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
Another governor said: 'For a federating nation, there are so many extraneous clauses in EO 10 which are in conflict with the 1999
'For instance, in some states, there is already Appropriation Law for the
'In most states, we have a
'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.'
Sources said there is anxiety among the governors that the Federal Government may withhold the allocations of states that do not implement autonomy for its legislature and judiciary.
A North-West governor said: ''It is also wrong to ask the Accountant-General of the Federation in 7(b) of EO 10 to 'take appropriate steps to ensure compliance with the provisions of this Order. This is like giving a sword to the Accountant-General of the Federation to kill.
'We may witness a repeat of the era of the administration of ex-President
'All the governors are not happy that the Minister of Justice and the Accountant-General of the Federation can determine the fate of a state based on EO 10.'
The Executive Order 10 reads in part: 'WHEREAS a Presidential Implementation Committee was constituted to fashion out strategies and modalities for the implementation of financial autonomy for the
'WHEREAS implementation of financial autonomy of the
'By the power vested in me as the President of the
'Now, therefore, I,
'Without prejudice to any other applicable laws, legislations and conventions at the State tier of Government, which also provides for financial autonomy of
'The Accountant-General of the Federation shall by this Order and such any other Orders, Regulations or Guidelines as may be issued by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, authorize the deduction from source in the course of Federation Accounts Allocation from the money allocated to any State of the Federation that fails to release allocation meant for the
'Subject to section 8(1) of this Order, implementation of the provisions of this Order shall be carried out by the Presidential Implementation Committee in accordance with its recommendations.
(b) To the extent as may be permitted by law, the Accountant-General of the Federation shall take appropriate steps to ensure compliance with the provisions of this Order and implementation of the recommendations of the Committee, as may from time to time be made.
(c) This Order shall be implemented consistently with States applicable laws that guarantee financial autonomy of
Defending EO 10 however, Malami said it was designed to force constitutional compliance with Section 121(3) of 1999
He spoke on Thursday at the Radio Nigeria programme 'Politics Nationwide'.
In a statement through his Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Umaru Jibrilu Gwandu, the Minister said 'Executive Order No. 10 is meant to bring about the constitutionality associated with the autonomy of the state legislature and judiciary.
He said the order was also 'intended to achieve supervisory role by assigning responsibilities and ensuring proper supervision desired for the purpose of enforcement and application of autonomy constitutionally granted states legislature and judiciary as contained in Section 121(3) of the 1999
He said: 'The Executive Order is therefore a necessary tool for the purpose of bringing into effect such autonomy by way of assigning certain responsibilities, both institutional and otherwise necessary for the purpose of enforcing the autonomy.
'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
'Similarly, if the government wants the state legislature to be part of the process relating to appropriation, for example, agreement must be reached on the need for the state legislature to be alive to their responsibility.'
Ekweremadu faults Executive Order 10
Former Deputy President of the
Ekweremadu also picked holes with the controversial Control of Infections Disease Bill 2020 and the National Health Emergency Bill 2020 now before the
The former Chairman of the
He said that while the restrictions were 'absolutely necessary,' they 'failed the constitutionalism test' and could only be overlooked on the grounds of Doctrine of Necessity.
He spoke in a radio interview in Enugu.
His words: 'We, the members of the 8th Assembly, passed the amendment to the
'And when we passed them, the President dutifully signed them into law (over a year ago).
'That should have been the end of it because the amendments are self-executing.
We expected that having done that, the states should go ahead to work out the modalities. But that didn't happen.
'So, the President now set up a Committee headed by the Attorney-General of the Federation to work out the modalities for implementation.
'I think it was at that point that they deemed it necessary to come up with an Executive Order to strengthen the implementation.
'But regrettably, they have simply mutilated those provisions of the
'Now, they are adding some aspects suggesting to the states how to manage their funds because part of that Executive Order is that in the next three years, the judiciary in the states should dedicate part of the monies coming to them to capital projects for the State Judiciary.
'It went ahead to suggest that if the governors fail to remit these monies to
'This in itself was not part of what we amended in the
On the way forward, Ekweremadu advised the Governors to approach the President and point out those mistakes so that he could withdraw the executive order.
'And unfortunately, if they go to court, the implication is that the application of that amendment regarding financial independence of the
'So, it something the Governors and the Attorney General and the President need to settle amicably.'
On the infectious disease Bills before the
'If you look at some parts of the Bill, it says if you have any problem with the order or actions of the
'But Section 4 (8) of the
© Pakistan Press International, source