Judiciary workers suspends nationwide protests as FG wades in

The striking Judiciary workers yesterday put on hold its earlier scheduled nationwide protests as the Federal Government prevailed over the leadership of the union at the weekend.
The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) had earlier directed its members nationwide on Friday to hold a peaceful rally on Monday along with the ongoing nationwide strike in protest against the government’s inability to grant financial autonomy to the judiciary.
The strike, officially today will be two weeks that the workers have shut down the courts nationwide, an action which was supported by the members of the Nigerian Bar Association.
However, the General Secretary of JUSUN, Isaiah Adetola said the Federal Government through the Ministry of Labour and Employment has invited the union to a meeting today (Tuesday).
“We have decided to put the rally on hold because the Ministry of Labour and Employment reached out to us at the weekend and scheduled a meeting for Tuesday.
“We will honour their invitation and be at the meeting, hear what they have to say. If the meeting is favourable, we may suspend the strike. But if it’s nothing to go by, we will continue our action,” he said.
The union’s scribe noted that though the federal government has complied to some level, he maintained that a full autonomy of the judicial system will settle most of the workers agitation.
He lamented that the governors at the state level have flagrantly disregard the court ruling in relation to the full financial autonomy of the Judiciary, thereby making the third arm of the government  operating in subservience to the executives.
He said, “Even the rally fixed for Monday was in reaction to the refusal of the governors to meet with us last week Wednesday, after the Ministry of Labour had informed us that the governors would be having a meeting with us. But at the last minute we got the information through the Minister of Labour that the meeting has been postponed indefinitely. 
“That shows that the governors were not serious and the fact that they were undermining us. Therefore the strike will continue until they are ready to follow the law and respect the court judgement.”
Prior to the commencement of the industrial action on Tuesday April 6, JUSUN national leadership in a circular on April 1 had ordered the closure of courts from April 5th until government complies with the Nigerian Constitution, court judgments and other instruments which confer or re-emphasises the financial autonomy of the judiciary. However the strike commenced on Tuesday April 6th, due to public holiday on Monday, April 5.
The union’s scribe said JUSUN went to court in 2014, that government should make judiciary autonomous, stating that 70 percent of irregularities in the judicial system would become history if the system is autonomous and doesn’t go cap in hands to the executive for funding.
The General Secretary of the union reemphasized that the issue at stake is on Section 121 sub section 3 of the 1999 Constitution which most of the governors swore to uphold, stating that disregarding the constitution which they had sworn to uphold is an  impeachable  offence.