By Jonathan Nda- Isaiah, Abuja
Governors of the 36 states of the federation have thrown their weight behind financial autonomy for state legislature and judiciary.
Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, disclosed this to State House correspondents yesterday after leading a delegation of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and the chairman of States Legislators Conference to meet with the chief of staff to the president, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, at the presidential villa.
He said modalities for the implementation of the financial autonomy would be finalized on Thursday next week.
The governor was accompanied by Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State who is a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly and his Zamfara State counterpart, Bello Matawalle.
He said, “We are here to meet the chief of staff on the instruction of Mr. President and you can see that the leadership of the Speakers Conference of the states of the federation is here ably led by the chairman.
“It’s all about Order 10 which has to do with the independence, financial autonomy of the legislature and the judiciary at the state level.
“So it’s a continuous meeting and we are going to meet next week Thursday when we hope to finalise on the framework and modalities of implementing the autonomy of the state legislature and the judicial.”
The governors had been accused of frustrating efforts to grant financial autonomy to state legislators and state judiciary.
But Governor Tambuwal said that the governors were in support of financial autonomy for the lawmakers in the states and that there was no impediment towards the implementation of the president’s Executive Order.
“By next week Thursday we will be meeting to finalize the framework. We are all in support of it by the grace of God,” he said.
On the controversy over the payment of N30,000 minimum wage, he said, “Well our chairman (chairman of NGF) and the team of governors forum…
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