JUSUN - Seeking Justice for All 20 Jan 2015 Legal Eagle By May Agbamuche-Mbu, Email: may.mbu@thisdaylive In the last few years the Judiciary has had its fair share of crises, lurching from one to another. This time the recent strike which began on 5th January by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) has brought the entire judiciary to a complete standstill, with the courts all over the country firmly closed and under lock and key. Their main bone of contention is based on the failure of the Accountant General of the Federation to prevail upon the Federal Government to comply with the judgment of the Federal High Court which barred the Executive from holding on to funds meant for the judiciary. Interestingly enough between 2012 and 2014 different state branches of JUSUN had embarked on strikes to ram home their demands but all to no avail. Since the judgment in January 2014 so many meetings and discussions have been had, including 7 separate Memoranda of Understanding being entered into and yet still no tangible agreement has been reached. One thing is for certain here and that is there has been a persistent breach of Section 81(3)(c) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) which provides that the budgeted allocations to the State Judiciary should be given directly to the Heads of those Courts. It reads: 81(3) Any amount standing to the credit of the judiciary in the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation shall be paid directly to the National Judicial Council for disbursement to the heads of the courts established for the Federation and the State under section 6 of this Constitution. (c) A supplementary estimate showing the sums required shall be laid before each House of the National Assembly and the heads of any such expenditure shall be included in a Supplementary Appropriation Bill. Being declaratory in nature, the judgment by Justice Adeniyi Ademola cannot go through the normal enforcement procedure and with the Accountant General of the Federation failing to appeal within the stipulated time, JUSUN eventually felt it had no option than to go on strike. The question is, does JUSUN have the right to go on strike? The answer, I believe, is yes as Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution grants the freedom of expression to every citizen and that freedom can be exercised through protests, strike actions, or other legitimate methods of civil protests. JUSUN’s strike is therefore valid in law and supported by the Constitution. Over the years labour disputes with the government have resulted in major strike actions because negotiations have broken down and it is often not until the relevant sector or the wider workforce has neared breaking point that a halfhearted agreement is reached. The JUSUN strike appears to be no different. With the strike crippling the legal profession, the Accountant General of the Federation’s excuse for non –implementation of the judgment was that the States’ Accountant Generals did not agree with him. Bayelsa and Delta States however, are implementing the judgment. The Attorney General of Delta State Mr. Charles Ajuyah SAN confirmed that the law is operational in the state. Why then, one wonders, are the other States are reluctant to follow suit? The intention of JUSUN is laudable as an autonomous well funded judiciary will make for an efficient, independent body with the ultimate beneficiaries being the entire legal profession and the country as a whole. On the flip side how does one even begin to explain or justify a judiciary that is operating under the will and whim of the Executive? It has been a pretty tough couple of weeks for lawyers and litigants all over the country even as lawyers are polarized in their opinion about the strike. I would have thought that from the moment the judgment was delivered the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoki SAN, being the official leader of the Bar would have risen to the occasion and taken a prompt and clear position. He has though recently asserted the Federal Government has complied with the judgment of the Federal High Court, directing the complete financial autonomy of the judiciary. In his statement the Attorney General said: ‘(a) that the Federal Government is not in breach or violation of the aforementioned judgment of the Federal High Court. This much has been publicly acknowledged by JUSUN in all their statements and deliberations; (b) that the strike is actually directed at State governments that are yet to comply with the judgment; (c) that Federal Courts are thus only on sympathy strike with their State counterparts. The foregoing notwithstanding, the Supervising Minister of Labour and Productivity has been working assiduously with relevant stakeholders to resolve all the challenges that may have militated against the implementation of the judgment of the court.’ He further added that ‘the Federal Government acknowledges the imperative of an efficient and effective judiciary to our democratic consolidations and is doing all that is within its constitutional powers to ensure full implementation of the judgment. We therefore call on all well-meaning Nigerians to appreciate the dynamics of the federal structure that Nigeria operates and the constitutional limits of the federal government when dealing with the states especially with respect to matters within their constitutional mandates.’ Unfortunately the President of JUSUN promptly rejected the Attorney General’s claims. The NBA on its own part should have been rallying support for the implementation of the judgment, speaking with one voice as it is their duty to safeguard the judiciary with all lawyers championing the cause. Recently the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Mr. Augustine Alegeh SAN urged the judiciary workers to call off the ongoing strike and pursue an amicable resolution. Whether the strike is illegal, unconstitutional and ill-timed is not really relevant here. It is the untold hardship inflicted on lawyers and litigants, especially those who are unable to meet bail conditions and whose constitutional rights have thereby been infringed upon. As courts cannot sit an aggrieved person has no judicial redress. Furthermore pre-election matters which have been filed will likely now not be determined before the actual elections next month. With the strike already entering its third week tongues are beginning to wag because of its timing being so close to the elections, which appears to be causing some doubts to be raised about JUSUN’S otherwise laudable cause. Light at the end of the tunnel however, appears to be visible as the Secretary to the Government Mr. Anyim Pius Anyim, himself a lawyer has summoned a meeting for Monday 19th January with officials of JUSUN, the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke SAN, Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, NBA President Mr. Augustine Alegeh SAN, supervising Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr. Kabir Turaki, the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Oyunla and the Attorneys General of the 36 states along with the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Abdulwaheed Omar in attendance. With such a high powered team set to finally resolve this crucial issue of judicial funding we may at last be on the way to a new beginning in the legal profession.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 06:41:58 +0000