the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Monday Ubani.
The Immediate past 2nd Vice President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, Monday Onyekachukwu Ubani, has lauded President
Muhammadu Buhari for signing the Executive Order No.10.
TheNigerialawyer recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari, on
Friday, signed into law the Executive Order No.10 of 2020 to
give life to the provision of Section 121(3) of the 1999
Constitution As Amended which grant financial autonomy to the
legislature and the judiciary across the 36 states of the
country.
The order also mandates the accountant-general of the federation
to deduct from source amount due to state legislatures and
judiciaries from the monthly allocation to each state for states
that refuse to grant such autonomy.
Ubani in his statement made available to TheNigerialawyer(TNL)
on Monday said despite this heroic amendment of the 1999
constitution which was signed by President Buhari in 2018 providing
for the financial independence of these other two arms of
government, many of the State governors have observed the
implementation of that provision in utter breach and
contempt.
“It is appalling to note that these are governors who swore to
uphold the provisions of the constitution when being sworn into
their elective offices.
“The lack of financial independence of both the judiciary and
the legislature have brought us to where we are today where
impunity, lawlessness, lack of accountability coupled with
monarchical and messianic display of authority by many of the
governors in the federation reign supreme.
“We have governors who treat state funds as their personal
funds; they dip their hands into the state treasury and spend those
funds at their whims and caprices,” he said.
He also said that the inability of these other two arms of
government to checkmate, oversee or reprimand the governors’
excesses have meant that the people are absolutely denied
good and accountable governance. Infrastructures are decayed, human
capital development are zero and poverty and underdevelopment
indices stare everyone in the face as a result of the inability of
the institutions to work according to the provisions of our
law.
“When President Buhari set up the Presidential
Implementation Committee on financial autonomy of these two other
arms, some of us were skeptical that it may go the way of other
committees whose recommendations are usually thrown into the
dustbin. Alas! I was personally excited about the Executive
Order that the president has just signed giving life to the express
provision of the constitution which these governors have only
observed in breach.
“The provisions of the Executive Order was very explicit that
the Accountant General must ensure the Allocations to these two
other arms of government get to them directly, especially of those
States where the governors have disregarded the implementation of
the constitution. The State legislative assemblies are mandated to
appropriate the sums of money due to the States’ Assemblies
and the judiciary by giving them priority(as a first line charge)
in their budgeting process.
“This is a thumb up for President Muhammed Buhari. We need
more of this kind of thinking and innovation in governance to
revive Nigeria. The truth of the matter is that Nigeria is being
killed incrementally by her leaders through brazen stealing of her
resources that should have been used to develop the country and the
people,” he added.
He is urging the president and the National Assembly to go
the entire hog to stop the avenues through which elites steal
directly from the people because of the loopholes in our legal
system.
“The National Assembly and the President are hereby urged to
ensure the financial autonomy of the Local Government Areas in
Nigeria through an immediate amendment of the constitution of
1999. Several billions in terms of allocations to the local
government areas across the country are squandered by these same
governors due to the Joint Account which the constitution provided
for warehousing the allocations.
“Today as I speak there is no single local government area in
Nigeria that receives in full her allocations from the federation
account. They are being tampered with by these same governors and
these amounts runs in billions of Naira. This must stop now!
“It is also my plea that the President and National Assembly
should also enact a law that will stop the governors determining
the security votes they can take out of the system without
accounting for them. I implore the EFCC to use a particular
governor in the South East who have admitted squandering 38billion
of the said security votes to set an example of the lack of
transparency and accountability which is our bane. It is criminal
under our present democracy to spend any money without
appropriation and accountability. We should test our laws on
this.
“Finally all Nigerians are advised to rise up and press for
Procurement Laws in all the States of the federation with the
appointment of board members to oversee the contract award system
that have been used by these state governors to squander the riches
of the various States. It is a drain pipe that are used by both the
federal and state governments to take so much out of the system and
today the country is known as the poverty capital of the world not
because we do not have resources or money, but because our leaders
have mastered the art of taking so much out of the system without
accountability. A word is enough for the wise,” Ubani
said.
the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Monday Ubani.
The Immediate past 2nd Vice President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, Monday Onyekachukwu Ubani, has lauded President
Muhammadu Buhari for signing the Executive Order No.10.
TheNigerialawyer recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari, on
Friday, signed into law the Executive Order No.10 of 2020 to
give life to the provision of Section 121(3) of the 1999
Constitution As Amended which grant financial autonomy to the
legislature and the judiciary across the 36 states of the
country.
The order also mandates the accountant-general of the federation
to deduct from source amount due to state legislatures and
judiciaries from the monthly allocation to each state for states
that refuse to grant such autonomy.
Ubani in his statement made available to TheNigerialawyer(TNL)
on Monday said despite this heroic amendment of the 1999
constitution which was signed by President Buhari in 2018 providing
for the financial independence of these other two arms of
government, many of the State governors have observed the
implementation of that provision in utter breach and
contempt.
“It is appalling to note that these are governors who swore to
uphold the provisions of the constitution when being sworn into
their elective offices.
“The lack of financial independence of both the judiciary and
the legislature have brought us to where we are today where
impunity, lawlessness, lack of accountability coupled with
monarchical and messianic display of authority by many of the
governors in the federation reign supreme.
“We have governors who treat state funds as their personal
funds; they dip their hands into the state treasury and spend those
funds at their whims and caprices,” he said.
He also said that the inability of these other two arms of
government to checkmate, oversee or reprimand the governors’
excesses have meant that the people are absolutely denied
good and accountable governance. Infrastructures are decayed, human
capital development are zero and poverty and underdevelopment
indices stare everyone in the face as a result of the inability of
the institutions to work according to the provisions of our
law.
“When President Buhari set up the Presidential
Implementation Committee on financial autonomy of these two other
arms, some of us were skeptical that it may go the way of other
committees whose recommendations are usually thrown into the
dustbin. Alas! I was personally excited about the Executive
Order that the president has just signed giving life to the express
provision of the constitution which these governors have only
observed in breach.
“The provisions of the Executive Order was very explicit that
the Accountant General must ensure the Allocations to these two
other arms of government get to them directly, especially of those
States where the governors have disregarded the implementation of
the constitution. The State legislative assemblies are mandated to
appropriate the sums of money due to the States’ Assemblies
and the judiciary by giving them priority(as a first line charge)
in their budgeting process.
“This is a thumb up for President Muhammed Buhari. We need
more of this kind of thinking and innovation in governance to
revive Nigeria. The truth of the matter is that Nigeria is being
killed incrementally by her leaders through brazen stealing of her
resources that should have been used to develop the country and the
people,” he added.
He is urging the president and the National Assembly to go
the entire hog to stop the avenues through which elites steal
directly from the people because of the loopholes in our legal
system.
“The National Assembly and the President are hereby urged to
ensure the financial autonomy of the Local Government Areas in
Nigeria through an immediate amendment of the constitution of
1999. Several billions in terms of allocations to the local
government areas across the country are squandered by these same
governors due to the Joint Account which the constitution provided
for warehousing the allocations.
“Today as I speak there is no single local government area in
Nigeria that receives in full her allocations from the federation
account. They are being tampered with by these same governors and
these amounts runs in billions of Naira. This must stop now!
“It is also my plea that the President and National Assembly
should also enact a law that will stop the governors determining
the security votes they can take out of the system without
accounting for them. I implore the EFCC to use a particular
governor in the South East who have admitted squandering 38billion
of the said security votes to set an example of the lack of
transparency and accountability which is our bane. It is criminal
under our present democracy to spend any money without
appropriation and accountability. We should test our laws on
this.
“Finally all Nigerians are advised to rise up and press for
Procurement Laws in all the States of the federation with the
appointment of board members to oversee the contract award system
that have been used by these state governors to squander the riches
of the various States. It is a drain pipe that are used by both the
federal and state governments to take so much out of the system and
today the country is known as the poverty capital of the world not
because we do not have resources or money, but because our leaders
have mastered the art of taking so much out of the system without
accountability. A word is enough for the wise,” Ubani
said.