Strike Still On, No Concrete Resolution Reached

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The Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) said the strike was
still because no concrete resolution had been reached.

The legal adviser to JUSUN, Mariam Usuf-Gusau, made this known
on Thursday in Abuja in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN).

” The strike is still on while we await the outcome of the
negotiation, we are not backing off until our demands are met” she
said.

JUSUN began an indefinite strike on Tuesday over continued delay
to implement financial autonomy for the judiciary.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on May 22, 2020, signed the
Executive Order 10 for the enforcement of the financial autonomy
status granted to state legislature and judiciary in the Nigerian
Constitution.

Executive Order 10 of 2020, made it mandatory for all states to
include the allocations of both the legislature and the judiciary
in the first-line charge of their budgets.

The order also mandates the accountant-general of the federation
to deduct from source amount due to the state legislatures and
judiciaries from the monthly allocation to each state, for states
that refuse to grant such autonomy.

”How can state high courts beg from governors for what is
constitutionally theirs,” Usuf-Gusau sais.

In the same vein, Sunday Adetola, an Abuja-based lawyer urged
government to meet the demands of JUSUN for financial autonomy.

Adetola told NAN:” does government understand the symbiotic
relationship between justice and social cohesion? Justice is the
sacred womb where peace and tranquility are conceived and
birthed.

” When the Judiciary is strangulated through financial
subjugation by the Executive arm of government, the capacity to
dispense wholesale justice without fear or favour is tragically
impaired and dangerously undermined.

” On the debit side, denial of justice will always breed anarchy
in the polity. This is the more reason why financial autonomy
should be advanced to the highest heaven.

” Why is it so difficult for the Executive arm of government to
come to terms with the point that reducing the Judiciary to a
toothless bulldog will inevitably translate to more security
spending and needless waste of human and material resources in
dealing with the resultant anarchy/consequences of failure in the
justice sector” Adetola said.

He questioned the justification for disobeying decisions of
Courts of competent jurisdiction affirming the legal rights of the
Judiciary to enjoy financial autonomy by the Executive.

” Why is the fund for the Judiciary so attractive to the
Executive? Has it anything to do with pilfering at the instance of
the Executive?

“To put it bluntly the Executive is a notable culprit in the
mess we find ourselves in this nation on account of frustrating the
Judiciary in the performance of its Constitutionally assigned role
as the official arbiter of the state.

” May the voice of reason prevail as we continue to work for the
survival and sustainability of a virile and indissoluble Nigeria
where transparent justice is the order of the day” he stated.

NAN correspondent who went round some courts in Abuja observed
that JUSUN officials were seen at the entrance of various court to
monitor compliance. (NAN)