Rights Group Appealls to Judiciary Workers to Call off Strike

Akinwale Akintunde A Lagos-based human rights group, Access to Justice (A2Justice) has appealed to the Chairman of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), Marwan Adamu to call off the on-going strike by JUSUN in some states in Nigeria.

In a letter to JUSUN Chairman, signed by its Executive Director, Mr. Joseph Otteh, the group urged JUSUN to consider calling off the strike action in the interest of persons who are mostly “outsiders” to the policy making circuit and who exercise little or no influence over policy makers who alone can address the grievances being expressed by JUSUN in the sustained strike.

JUSUN, began the strike on January 5, 2015 to demand that states implement two Federal High Court judgments granting financial independence to the judiciary.

Though the strike has been called off in some states including Lagos and at the federal level, it is yet to be called off in 15 states because JUSUN has said it will continue in those states where the governments have not given their commitments to abide by the court judgment.

Access to Justice noted that the impact of the strike has been massive, and has had the most disproportionate effect on persons who are mostly “outsiders” to the policy making circuit.

The group lamented that since the strike began four months ago, courts in the remaining 15 states where strike is still on have been shut and no activities are able to take place there following a lock-out enforced by the association.

“Access to Justice appeals to JUSUN to consider calling off the strike action at this time. We do this for two principal reasons: first, the impact of the strike has been massive, and has had the most disproportionate effect on persons who are mostly “outsiders” to the policy making circuit and who exercise little or no influence over policy makers who alone can address the grievances being expressed by JUSUN in the sustained strike.

Second, there will be considerable changes to the composition of the executive branch in a significant number of States where the strike is taking place soon. Newly elected governors will be sworn into office in some of these states on May 29 2015, which is barely a month from this time. This is the situation in States like Kaduna, Enugu, Plateau, Taraba and Nasarawa States, among others.