Judicial financial autonomy: so close, yet so far - The Nation Nigeria

Two years after the National Assembly altered the Constitution to grant state legislatures and judiciaries financial autonomy, President Muhammadu Buhari on May 22, 2020 signed Executive Order No.10 to enforce the law. But there are obstacles in the way, writesMedia reports suggest that President Muhammadu Buhari will step up plans to enforce financial autonomy of the state legislature and judiciary this week by gazetting Executive Order No.10 .

The amendment, known as Constitution Alteration Act No 4 of 2017, put the budgets of the state judiciary and the legislature on first line charge. It provides that any amount standing to the credit of the state judiciary and legislature in the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state must be paid to the heads of the institutions.

He also asked that states with existing Appropriation Laws to amend them to encompass financial autonomy of state legislature and state judiciary and those without such laws must do so. “By the power vested in me as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under Section 5 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 , which extends to the execution and maintenance of the Constitution, laws made by the National Assembly of the 1999 Constitution , which guarantee financial autonomy of the State Legislature and State Judiciary.

“Subject to Section 8 of this Order, implementation of the provisions of this Order shall be carried out by the Presidential Implementation Committee in accordance with its recommendations. Litigants, lawyers and judges regularly jostle for space in the tiny court rooms of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi. Nearby, a nine-storey building purposed to be the court’s permanent edifice, has been under construction since 2012, following lack of funds.

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 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

A Former President of Nigerian Bar Association and constitutional lawyer, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba also threw his weight behind the President’s move.Referencing the Nigerian governors’ threat to file legal action against the Federal Government over the matter, Agbakoba said a “simpler form of Executive Order 10 would have avoided the seeming confusion which is simply withholding the states’ money on grounds of non-compliance with Section 121 of the Constitution.

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