Financial autonomy of State Legislatures Will Strengthen Democracy—BAHA Speaker

The Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Abubakar Y Suleiman has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for signing Executive Order 10 which gives financial autonomy to State legislatures and judiciary in the country.
The speaker made the commendation in an interview with our reporter in his office.
According to the Speaker, financial autonomy to States’ legislature and judiciary is a welcome development because the two arms of government will be strengthened for speed flow of dividends of democracy.
“Financial autonomy of States legislature and judiciary will eliminate long bureaucracy especially in accessing finance and fundings for running states’ legislature. This will strengthen the institutions at state level so that they will be more active thereby enhancing democracy.”
On whether the move will generate disharmony between the legislature and the executive, Rt. Hon. Abubakar Suleiman remarked that he don’t think the financial autonomy granted will affect harmonious working relationship between the two arms of government.
“Rather, it will consolidate our relationship since we are working for the same goal-delivering dividends of democracy to the entire population of the State.
“In fact, a lot of burden has been lifted on the executive. “The legislature and judiciary will not disturb the executive with requests. You can see even at the federal level, though the national assembly has financial autonomy that has never affect its relationship with the presidency. And luckily for us in Bauchi, our Governor was a legislator; he has utmost respect for all the arms of government.
“So, I assure you despite the financial autonomy, we will continue to work in harmony with the other arms of government. In fact, our relationship will be consolidated more than ever before,” the Speaker added.
However, Rt Hon. Sulaiman fears that the successful implementation of the Order will face some hitches such as fiscal discipline specifications especially in the legislative arm should be brought bear and the formula for distribution that would be put in place to sustain the autonomy.
“The structure and the layout of the Executive Order in my humble view will make implementation so difficult. For instance, section 2 of the Order which demands state governments should set up committee for determination of the budget, is this feasible?” He asked.