President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, 22nd May, signed Executive Order No. 10 of 2020 to give teeth to the recent alteration to the constitution – Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Fourth Alteration, No. 4) Act, 2017. In 2017, the 8th National Assembly had passed alterations to the constitution giving financial autonomy to State Houses of Assembly and State Judiciary. Under the alteration, the amounts standing to the credit of State Houses of Assembly and the Judiciary in the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the State shall be paid directly to the said bodies, respectively. The Executive Order No. 10 of 2020 issued by President Buhari aims to ensure that these constitutional alterations are obeyed by the States. Several States have continued to operate without respecting these 2018 constitution alterations. While some Nigerians have questioned the relevance of an Executive Order on a subject that has been covered by the constitution, others have applauded the measure. The purpose of the order, it would seem, is to further facilitate compliance of the constitutional provision. It will be recalled that in March 2019, the President had set up a Presidential Implementation Committee on State Legislature and Judiciary to ensure that funds appropriated to these arms of government are directly paid to them. Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) had supported the work of the implementation committee, including supporting a convening of State Governors, Chief Judges of States, State Houses of Assembly Speakers and Federal Judiciary officials to work out the modalities of implementation of the constitution alteration from the 15th to 17th May 2019. The convening which was supported by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) was co-ordinated by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and Presidential Adviser on National Assembly matters, Senator Ita Enang.
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami while speaking on the subject, explained that State Executives who withhold funds meant for their respective State Houses of Assembly and State Judiciary would have their allocations deducted at source by the Accountant General of the Federation and remitted to the respective organs of government, as provided by the Executive Order. Article 6(1) of the Order provides for a special extraordinary capital allocation for the judiciary to undertake capital development of State Judiciary complexes. Financial autonomy is fundamental to the operations of the various tiers of government as federating units, and more so, to allow for independence of organs of the government and give effect to the democratic principles of separation of powers and checks and balances. It is expected that States that have continuously breached and compromised the independence of the Judiciary and State Houses of Assembly will now pull back from these excesses and unconstitutional acts. Nigerians continuously protest the excesses of State Governors acting with impunity and in total disregard of the powers of democratic institutions such as the Judiciary and their State Houses of Assembly who should act as checks on their excesses.