Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, said on Tuesday that there was no going back on the Executive Order 10, which gave financial autonomy to state judiciary and legislature.
The minister said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration came out with the Executive Order No. 10 in order to deepen democracy from grassroots and ensure effective implementation of the doctrine of Separation of Powers.
In a statement by Umar Gwandu, special assistant on media to the AGF, he said the re-enforcement of the constitutional provisions on the autonomy of the state legislature and judiciary as contained in Section 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria necessitated the Executive Order No 10.
State governors have since the Order last month mounted pressure on the Federal Government to rescind the decision, arguing it was against some provisions of the Constitution.
However, Malami in the statement, noted with appreciation that the governors had agreed to the constitutionality of the autonomy of the state legislature and judiciary, maintaining that the essence of the Order was to see to the implementation of the autonomy.
While congratulating Nigerians on this landmark historic achievement geared toward engendering democratic principles at the grassroots, the minister called on more inter-agency support for the Order, which he said would accelerate development Nigerian masses had been clamouring for.
“In furtherance of the implementation of the Order, the Federal Government and Nigerian Governors’ Forum are jointly working on modalities for effective implementation of the Order,” the statement said.
He said the Executive Order implementation Committee would incorporate valuable submissions from Governor’s Forum and other stakeholders with a view to seeing practicable implementation of the Executive Order.
