The Governors of the the 36 states will today meet to parley on the strike embanked upon by Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN)
Recalled that JUSUN went on strike last week demanding for financial autonomy for the judiciary.
Speaking on the the JUSUN strike and their demand the the governor of Plateau, Simon Lalong, said that governors are committed to autonomy for the Legislature and Judiciary and that they will be meeting today to parley on the the issue.
He also said that they (governors) do not need the executive Order 10 made by President Muhammadu Buhari to implement financial autonomy.
Judiciary workers lock court complex in Port Harcort
Lalong lamented that the governors of the 36 states were not consulted when the Executive Order 10 was made. ‘When you are talking about implementation, you are talking about processes. You don’t wake up and say because a law is passed, it must be applied. There must be processes’. he said
He said: “For us the governors, we are saying no. We are going to do implementation. You don’t need Order 10 to force us to do implementation. So, we don’t need Order 10. We are already working on the law of implementation, because the federal government cannot tell us how to implement. We are doing the implementation.
“People don’t know the difference between Order 10 and the law on financial autonomy. What we are having meetings on, which we are going to conclude tomorrow, is about financial autonomy. It is not about Order 10. Order 10, of course, is subjudice now, because it is in court.
“But, we are not bothered about Order 10. We are talking about the implementation of the financial autonomy law. I was a Speaker. We started it in 1999. Today, I am a governor. And I know how the governors agreed and brought in financial autonomy.
“It was a law agreed by the governors, who said go and pass it. Otherwise. it would not have been passed. We brought it up during every constitutional amendment. But, by the time we got there, we all agreed, as governors, and said let us pass it in our states and we passed it. So, who is the one that is crying more than the bereaved?
“We are the ones most affected. All these things affect us. I am a lawyer and I will want the Judiciary to be autonomous. I have been a legislator. I was not only a legislator, I was a Speaker and Chairman of Former Speakers Conference up till today. So, I will want autonomy for them. I am a member of the Executive today.
“So, in essence, it is about strengthening the institutions. People are thinking it is about money. It is not about money; it is about strengthening the institutions,” he said.
Lalong also said: “We are not foot-dragging. We were not consulted when the Executive Order came. When you are talking about implementation, you are talking about processes. You don’t wake up and say because a law is passed, it must be applied. There must be processes.
“For instance, as a Speaker, I will tell you that you cannot do financial autonomy until you have a Service Commission in place. You must establish a Service Commission; you must establish a State Allocation Committee. And all these are steps towards autonomy. You cannot achieve autonomy in a day.
“We did it in the National Assembly and there was no Order 10 for implementation. It took them stages. The Federal Government is aware. Some members of the National Assembly then are today, governors. How can they say they don’t want autonomy? Today, we have seven governors, who were members of the National Assembly, who fought for autonomy and got it for the National Assembly.”
“We have had useful dialogue with both the representatives of the Judiciary and the state Speakers. Yesterday, they were in my state and we all agreed. By tomorrow (Wednesday) we are going to round it off with all the representatives of the Judiciary, the state Legislature and other stakeholders.”
