The chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Governor of Ekiti state Dr Kayode Fayemi said Monday that President Muhammadu Buhari has agreed to delay the gazetting of Executive Order 10 giving financial autonomy for state legislature and the judiciary.
The governor said this while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a meeting between some governors and the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed; and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, hosted by the Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
He said after listening to the concerns raised by the governors about the constitutionality of the Executive Order, the president agreed that gazetting of the order would be delayed.
“We have a delegation of the governors’ Forum here to discuss some matters of fundamental importance to the nation and the President has asked that we meet with the Attorney General, the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Finance Planning and Budget on the issue.
“It is an issue that has seized the interest of many of you in the media and a lot of people in the federation, it is about the autonomy of the State legislature and the judiciary and we’ve met with the President before now on it and the President was very pleased that for us as Governors, we are all united in support of the autonomy of State judiciary and the legislature; that’s the position of the 36 Governors of the federation.
“What is at issue is on the constitutionality of the modalities of what had been put in the Executive Order and the President was gracious enough to say ok, given your concerns about that we will delay the gazetting of the order and allow you meet with the Attorney General and the Minister of Finance out work out the modalities,” he said.
He said the governors have also been consulting with the Conference of Speakers of State Legislature to work out an amicable resolution of the matter.
“In any case, we have been meeting at our level with the Conference of Speakers. The Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum; Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto State, was delegated as the Chair of a number of Governors who have gained legislative experience either because they were in the House of Representatives or they were Speakers of State Assemblies, or they were Senators and that committee has been meeting with a delegation of the Conference of Speakers, working out this modalities and we believe that all of that would be settled amicably without any resort to court,” he said.
