The Speakers of the 36 Houses of Assembly on Thursday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to compel State Governors to implement the financial autonomy law for the judiciary and legislature.
The Speakers who were on a courtesy to the State House, Abuja had a closed door meeting with the president where they also called for the review of items in the Exclusive List to give states more economic power.
Briefing State House correspondents after meeting behind closed doors with President Buhari at the Council Chamber, Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, said one of the issues discussed with the President was the appeal to issue an executive order on the implementation of full autonomy for state legislatures.
Obasa, who is the Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly said though the amended 1999 Constitution had incorporated the independence and financial autonomy for state legislatures, it was not being implemented in many states.
“So, we are urging Mr President to intervene and speed up the implementation. We urged the President to come in by executive order for this implementation to move faster.” He said.
Obasa also said that they discussed the issue of dilapidated infrastructure like bad roads, challenges in education, health and security, adding that if the devolution of power is carried out some items would be removed from the Exclusive to the Concurrent list.
He also said that the issue of allowing states to have their own security so as to tackle the security challenges was discussed.
Asked why the Speakers would complain over autonomy when there is law in place, he said that they were not complaining against the governors but that the implementation has not been done in all the states.
Speakers of Edo, Bayelsa and Oyo States Houses of Assembly were not present at the meeting.
However, the meeting also had in attendance the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha; Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari; Permanent Secretary, State House, Jamil Arabi; and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters.
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