Presidential Committee Harps On Legislature, Judiciary Autonomy

The Presidential Implementation Committee on autonomy of state legislature and judiciary has tasked state governors on full implementation of autonomy for the two arms of government.
This is contained in a 12- point communique issued at the end a two-day retreat in Abuja last Friday.
The communique was signed by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, Chairman of the committee, the Secretary, Sen. Ita Enang and 20 other members of the committee .
The committee noted that following the assent by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Fourth Alteration) in June 2018, granting financial autonomy to state legislatures and judiciary, it was observed that it was honoured more in breach than in compliance.
“As a result, President Muhammadu Buhari, inaugurated a Presidential Implementation Committee on the Autonomy of State Legislature and Judiciary (The Committee) on March, 22.
“The committee is to fashion out a workable national strategy for the implementation of financial autonomy of state legislature and judiciary in accordance with the provisions of Section 121(3) of the Constitution.
“This is to ensure that funds appropriated to these two tiers of Governments at the State level, are released to them directly.
“Upon inauguration, the committee adopted its work plan and held a number of technical meetings, sub-committee meetings, strategic consultations among others which culminated into the 2-Day Retreat.
“The retreat was to provide a broad based platform for stakeholders to brainstorm and articulate an effective national strategy for the implementation of autonomy of States’ Legislature and Judiciary,” it noted.
The Retreat was attended by a cross section of stakeholders from the Legislature, Judiciary, Representatives of Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria, Representatives of Parliamentary Staff Union of Nigeria (PASAN), Civil Society Organisations, among others.
They commended President Muhammadu Buhari, for the bold step in signing the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Fourth Alteration) into law.