The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) is meeting in the State House, Abuja to deliberate on critical national issues, including security and the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) strike.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive Order 10, which deals with the implementation of financial autonomy for state Legislature and Judiciary, is also expected to receive critical attention at the meeting.
On Monday in Sokoto, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami said the Federal Government was determined to push through the content of EO 10.
The Governors had on Tuesday said while they are not against the implementation of the law on financial autonomy, they would not be stampeded by the Order.
JUSUN ongoing strike had paralysed activities in courts across the country.
The union had on April 6 embarked on a nationwide strike to protest the non-implementation of the financial autonomy of the nation’s judiciary.
The union directed all its members across the federation to shut down all courts after the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum earlier given over the failure of the government to implement the financial autonomy of the judiciary.
Plateau Governor Simon Lalong emphasised the NGF was not comfortable with Executive Order 10.
He noted that autonomy was not entirely about money, but putting necessary measures to strengthen the other two arms of government at the state level.
“For us the governors, we are saying no. We are going to do implementation. You don’t need Order 10 to force us to do implementation.
“So, we don’t need Order 10. We are already working on the law of implementation, because the federal government cannot tell us how to implement. We are doing the implementation”, Lalong had said.
At the time of filing this report, 16 Governors and four deputy Governors have entered the session.