Buhari signs bills granting financial autonomy to state assemblies, Judiciary
By President Muhammadu Buhari Friday, signed four Bills into law including Fourth Constitutional Alteration Bill which grants financial autonomy and independence to the Houses of Assembly of the respective states and to the Judiciary of the respective states.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters( Senate) Ita Enang disclosed this while speaking with State House Correspondents in Abuja
With the signing of the Bill, amounts standing to the credit of the judiciary are now to be paid directly to the judiciary of those states, no more through the governors and no more from the governors
It also means that the amounts standing to the credit of the Houses of Assembly of the respective states are now to be paid directly to the Houses of Assembly of that state for the benefit of the legislators and the management of the States Houses of Assembly.
This grants full autonomy now to the judiciary at the state level and the Houses of Assembly at the state level.
The President also signed another Bill amending the 1999 Constitution known as Act number 21 which relates to the determination of pre-election matters.
The amendment reduces the date and time of determining pre-election matters to ensure that pre-election matters in Court do not get into the time of the elections and do not pend thereafter.
Enang disclosed that “the relevant sections of the Constitution had also been amended by this act, therefore amending the Constitution.”
The President also signed the bill that amend the Constitution to limit the number of times a Vice President or Deputy Governor can contest election after succeeding the President or the Governor.
“The Act known as Act number 16 ensures that where a Vice President succeed that president and where a deputy governor succeeds a governor, he can no more contest for that office more than once more.
“The fact is that, having taken the oat as President once, and you can only contest for once again and no more. That is the intent of this amendment.”
The other amendment is Bill number 9 which also is an Act that gives the Independent National Electoral Commission sufficient time to conduct bye elections.
“It has increased the number from seven to 21 days and generally widened the latitude of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to handle election matters upon vacancy occurring.
“Therefore these four bills adding to the Not Too Young To Run Act have now been assented by Mr. President and have now become laws. Then the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended are hereby further amended by the assent of Mr. President to these bills today,” Enang said.
This allows the State Houses of Assembly to operate like the National Assembly does because the National Assembly does not get its from the executive.
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