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The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria has threatened to frustrate the forthcoming 2023 election with a strategic and elongated strike over the demand for the financial autonomy of the judiciary.
The National Treasurer of JUSUN, Jimoh Musa, gave this hint on Sunday .
Musa said 92 per cent of the states have refused to honour the MoA.
Musa lamented that JUSUN was disappointed that after the suspension of the strike in June following the intervention of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammed, the “government has turned the whole issue into political and playful issues.”
He said, “I will say 92 per cent of the states are not complying. You will find that there are one or two states that are friendly with the judiciary but that is not enough to say that they are complying with the constitutional provisions of this country.
“They have not done anything about it, rather some states will just tell you that they have passed a law; the governor has not assented to it and up till this moment nothing had happened and we are keenly watching them because there is a committee put in place by the NJC that is going round to make sure that this thing is (pushed) behind us. So, we are still expecting the committee to come out with their report.”
Musa was JUSUN would have no other option but to go back on strike if the governors continued to default, adding that the next strike the timing of the next strike would be strategic in a way that will frustrate hearing of pre-election cases in court ahead of the 2023 general elections.
He noted that courts across the country usually witness a flurry of political lawsuits, arising from disputes from political parties’ conventions, congresses and primary elections.
He noted that JUSUN’s next strike would be planned to put politicians under pressure because of the fact that election-related cases must, by the provision of the constitution, be dealt with and resolved in three months.
Musa said, “They have to understand that the judiciary is the last hope of the common man and it should be respected because they need us more next year and we will be there, waiting for them; we will hold them to ransom.
“When I say they need us more, that means the judiciary is the last hope of the common man and next year will be their political time when they will be running up and down, wanting the courts to do their biddings. I don’t think the courts will be there for them. We are waiting for them seriously.”
Musa said of all the demands of JUSUN, financial autonomy was the most important demand because “money controls everything.”
