Governors of the 36 states of the country have set up a legal committee to engage the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) on the implications of the recently signed Executive Order, 2020 that granted financial autonomy to state legislature and judiciary.
The committee, which comprises Governors Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Simon Lalong (Plateau) and Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), was mandated to examine the implications of the financial autonomy on governance at the sub-national level.
The order, which was signed by President Muhammadu Buhari last week, mandates the states to include the allocations of the legislature and the judiciary in the first-line charge of their budgets.
The order also mandates the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) to deduct from source, amount due to state legislature and judiciary from the monthly allocation to each state from states that refuse to grant such autonomy.
The state chief executives, who met on Wednesday on the auspices of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), in a communiqué signed by their Chairman, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, also agreed to interface with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, on the $1 billion COVID-19 crisis facility approved for the country by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The loan is to assist the country to embark on the delivery of projects that would meet the needs of Nigerians during the coronavirus pandemic, in such as health emergency assistance, agriculture and food security.
According to the communiqué, the NGF National Economic Council’s ad hoc sub-committee on COVID-19 would equally interface with the Economic Sustainability Committee chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to incorporate the contributions of state governments in the Economic Sustainability Plan as a national response to the COVID-19 crisis.
It “endorsed the development of a three-month plan on reopening the economy by the NEC Sub-Committee that will interface with the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.”
The governors pledged to continue their “engagements with CACOVID to consolidate interventions on the distribution of palliatives to vulnerable Nigerians who have lost their means of livelihood as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We received brief from Ebrima Faal, Senior Director of AfDB Nigeria on the $1 billion COVID-19 crisis facility and update from Zouera Youssoufou, Managing Director and CEO of The Aliko Dangote Foundation on activities of the CACOVID.”
The meeting was the 9th the governors held through teleconferencing since the upsurge of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
By Onyekachi Eze,
New Telegraph