Last Friday, May 22, 2020, news broke that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had signed Executive Order 10 granting financial autonomy to the 36 state Houses of Assembly and the judiciary. What a heart-warming news! According to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, the Executive Order No. 10 of 2020, makes it mandatory that all states of the federation should include the allocations of both the legislature and the judiciary in the first-line charge of their budgets.
According to the AGF, “A Presidential Implementation Committee was constituted to fashion out strategies and modalities for the implementation of financial autonomy for the state legislature and state judiciary in compliance with Section 121(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as Amended).” He said consideration was given to all other applicable laws, instruments, conventions and regulations that provided for financial autonomy at the states.
Malami added that “The President signed the Executive Order number 10 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), which extends to the execution and maintenance of the constitution, laws made by the National Assembly (including but not limited to Section 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as Amended), which guarantee financial autonomy of the state legislature and state judiciary.”
A part of the Executive Order states that: “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, authorise 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 state legislature and state judiciary in line with the financial autonomy guaranteed by Section 121(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as Amended).”
Article 6 (1) provides that: “Notwithstanding the provisions of this Executive Order, in the first three years of its implementation, there shall be special extraordinary capital allocations for the Judiciary to undertake capital development of state Judiciary complexes, High Court complexes, Sharia Court of Appeal, Customary Court of Appeal and Court complexes of other courts befitting the status of a court”
Before I delve into the implications of this “new lease of life at the state level”, let us examine some of the highpoints of how we get to this level. The battle for financial autonomy of state Houses of Assembly has been long and tortuous. State governors were believed to have mounted pressures on their state Assemblies to reject financial autonomy each time such an attempt was made by the National Assembly. In the lead-up to the 2010 constitution amendment, while the National Assembly passed the amendment to grant financial autonomy for the state Houses of Assembly, when the bill was referred to the SHA for concurrence, only 23 of the 36 assemblies passed the bill when a minimum of 24 states is needed to make the mandatory two-thirds required to make the alterations successful. It was quite unfortunate!
Recall that the attempt to amend the constitution ahead of 2015 was not successful due to about 12 grey areas in the procedures and contents of the amendment which made President Goodluck Jonathan to withhold assent. Luck however shined on the state House of Assembly when the eighth National Assembly made a fresh attempt in 2016. On June 8, 2018, Buhari assented to four constitutional alterations having first assented to the Not-Too-Young-To-Run bill on Thursday, May 31, 2018.
It was on that day that the President also assented to the constitution’s Fourth Alteration Bill, which grants financial autonomy to the state Houses of Assembly and the state judiciary, nationwide. The thought then was that state assemblies and judiciary would start to enjoy their hard-earned autonomy, however that was not to be as the President on Friday, March 22, 2019 inaugurated the Presidential Implementation Committee on Autonomy of the State Legislature and State Judiciary.
The committee headed by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice had as secretary the former Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang. The Terms of Reference for the Committee were as follows: To assess and review the level of compliance by all the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT with Section 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended); To monitor, ensure and cause the implementation of Financial Autonomy across the Judiciary and Legislature of the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended) and other applicable Laws, Instruments, Regulations, and Conventions howsoever providing for financial autonomy for the Legislature and Judiciary at the State tier of Government;
Furthermore, the committee was to consult and relate with the appropriate Federal and State MDAs, including but not limited to the Governors Forum, Accountant General of the Federation and those of the States, the National Economic Council and other institutions of State to ensure and where necessary, enforce the implementation of Constitutional provisions; To come up with appropriate modalities or model to be adopted by all the States of the Federation for implementation and/or compliance with Section 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended); and finally, to advice on other measures that are deemed necessary or incidental to the fulfilment of the aims of the Committee to attain the full purport of the assignment.
The committee was meant to sit for three months but obviously took its time as it is over one year since it was inaugurated before the Executive Order 10 was published last Friday. From the above timelines, it has taken the President about two years since he signed the constitutional alteration empowering the state legislature and judiciary to be on first line charge on the states’ consolidated revenue fund before the Executive Order was enacted. Some analysts have queried the motive of having to issue an Executive Order in order to give effect to the implementation of a constitutional provision.
To my own mind, nothing is wrong with that since the constitution may not be very explicit about the mode of implementation. For instance, while there are constitutional provisions backing the conduct of elections in Nigeria, the National Assembly still has to pass Electoral Act which is assented to by the President in order to explain in greater details how elections are to be conducted in Nigeria. Even at that, the Independent National Electoral Commission still has to issue subsidiary Regulations, Guidelines, Code of Conduct and Manuals.
My main concern is the tardiness with which the implementation has been done so far. Two budget cycles have passed, that of 2019 and 2020 before this Executive Order is coming into force. Nevertheless, it is better late than never. Another issue I have with the whole saga is the fact that the report of the implementation committee was not made public for interested Nigerians to be able to track the implementation of the financial autonomy provisions of the state Houses of Assembly and the Judiciary.
To whom much is given, much is expected says a wise saying. Now that the state Houses of Assembly and state Judiciary have got the desired lifeline for financial autonomy, I do hope that this will significantly improve service delivery at these arms of government at the state levels. I hope the governors will cooperate and that it will not lead to legislative rascality and judicial autocracy at the state level. It should not end up as tragedy of good intention because what Nigerians are hoping for is a better separation of powers and checks and balances among the three arms of government at the state levels so that they can jointly team up to provide transparent and accountable governance leading to improved dividends of democracy at the state level. These aspirations of Nigerians should not be dashed!
Happy Children’s Day!
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