A senior advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, has urged the state governors to obey court’s order on the implementation of financial autonomy for the juciary in Nigeria.
The advice was contained in an open letter he wrote to Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, who doubles as chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum.
In the letter titled ‘State governors should please enforce decisions of the courts and save the country this chaos in the judiciary’, Agbakoba said he was saddened by the avoidable strike action by Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) because of the stress it has caused the judicial system.
“A simple way out is for state governors to observe the rule of law and obey judgments of the court,” he said.
Letter to State Governor (pdf)
Drawing the attention of the state governors to the constitutional provision of financial autonomy, he said: “Sections 81 (3) and 121 (3) of the Constitution of Nigeria, grants financial autonomy to Federal and State Judiciaries.”
According to him, “This has been confirmed by courts in the following cases: JUDICIARY STAFF UNION OF NIGERIA VS NATIONAL JUDICIARY COUNCIL & GOVERNORS OF THE 36 STATES IN SUIT NO: FHC/ABJ/CS/667/13;; OLISA AGBAKOBA VS FG, THE NJC & NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SUIT NO. FHC/ABJ/CS/63/2013 and OLISA AGBKAOBA VS AG, EKITI STATE & 2 OTHERS SUIT No. NAD/56/2013”
The former president of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), recalled that “President Buhari has affirmed the decisions of the courts by issuing Executive Order 10 of 2020, in exercise of his powers under Section 5 of the Constitution to ensure execution and maintenance of the constitution which includes enforcement of decisions of the court.”
He urged the state governors to “please enforce the decisions of the court and save the country this chaos,” adding that “JUSUN is absolutely correct to pursue a policy of financial Independence of the courts guaranteed by the Constitution and affirmed by three decisions of superior courts of Nigeria.”
Recall that judiciary workers had last week begun an indefinite strike over the non-implementation of the Executive Order 10 signed by President Muhammadu Buhari last year, part of which was the financial autonomy of the judiciary.
