Strike Still On, No Concrete Resolution Reached - Judiciary Workers

 

The Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN on Thursday insisted that the ongoing strike action continues.

 

According to JUSUN, its strike was still on because no concrete resolution had been reached.

 

The legal adviser to JUSUN, Mariam Usuf-Gusau, stated this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.

 

“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.

 

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), 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. It 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.