Govs spurn Order 10, to implement extant financial autonomy law with conditions

THE Nigeria Governors’ Forum ( NGF), yesterday, said it was disposed only to the implementation of the EXTANT financial autonomy law and not Order 10.

Speaking on its behalf yesterday in Abuja, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State maintained that the Federal Government could not dictate implementation procedures to the states. He explained: “The court did not make any pronouncement on Order 10. It said there is a financial autonomy law. The court held that both are different, as Order 10 is not law, but financial autonomy is.

“Now, the implementation of financial autonomy was what, according to them, led to the enactment of Order 10. So, people don’t understand what is Order 10.

“But for us governors, we are saying no. We’re going to implement the autonomy law, as we don’t need any proposal for that.”

The body went on: “We’re only working on the law, as we don’t need any Order 10 for implementation and the Federal Government cannot force us to implement.

“In our meeting tomorrow ( today), what we are going to deliberate on is the financial autonomy law and not Order 10.

“Order 10, of course, is now in court. But we are not bothered about that, instead we are talking about the implementation of the financial autonomy.

“When I was Speaker then, I knew how the governors agreed and brought in financial autonomy. It was a law agreed by the governors and they would implement it.

“So I would want the judiciary to be autonomous so as to strengthen the institution. It’s not all about money as being peddled by the people.”

The Plateau chief executive dismissed the impression that the governors were footdragging, stating that, “we were not consulted.” He further said: “When you are talking about implementation, you’re talking about processes. For instance, I will tell you that you cannot do financial autonomy until you have a service commission. “You must establish a service commission, you must establish a state allocation committee, and all these aspects towards autonomy were done at the National Assembly, but there was no time for implementation.”

Executive Head, Corporate Communications, Multichoice Nigeria, Caroline Oghuma ( left); President, Directors’ Guild of Nigeria ( DGN), Victor Okhai and Academy Director, Multichoice Talent Factory ( MTF) West Africa, Femi Odugbemi, during a courtesy visit by the DGN to office of the Pay TV company in Lagos… yesterday.