Autonomy of state legislature, judiciary begin next week — FG

The Federal Government has said the implementation of financial autonomy for the state legislature and judiciary would commence next week.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, disclosed this to newsmen shortly after a meeting he held with the leadership of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) and Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) on Thursday night.

• OML revocation impasse: Reps doubt Addax’s claims
• Black Friday as army chief, others die in plane crash

Ngige told journalists that the striking legislative and judiciary workers will call off their prolonged strike as soon as implementation starts.

He said the parties signed a document containing the framework for each of the state governments to grant autonomy to their legislature and judiciary.

According to him, governors had studied the document and were in agreement with it, adding that the implementation would commence next week with the distribution of the April allocation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

He stated that whatever comes from FAAC, “even if the state governments are yet to put their fund allocation committees in place, would wait to do so, to ensure that the money goes down there.”

The meeting which commenced at about 6:45pm after a 9-hour stormy session with the Kaduna State government and the NLC, ended by 10pm with the adoption and signing of a Memorandum Of Action (MOA) named “Implementation of Financial Autonomy for the State Legislature and Judiciary” top of which is its article D, upon which the suspension of the strike is predicated as its implementation is triggered as from Monday May 24, 2021, when the April FAAC to states is expected to start dropping.