By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has spurned at judiciary workers for demanding financial autonomy, saying under Nigeria’s system of government, it is not realistic.
Wike also threatened to withhold judiciary workers salaries if they fail to call off the ongoing strike.
Recall that aside the 1999 constitution which provided autonomy to the judiciary and legislature as well as 2014 judgement in favour of financial autonomy to the judiciary, President Muhammadu Buhari had, in May 2020, signed an executive order, granting financial autonomy to both the legislature and judiciary across all states in the country.
However, governors have raised concern over the constitutionality of the order, and due to non-implementation, members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) had embarked on nationwide strike since April 6.
In May, representatives of the presidential implementation committee on financial autonomy met with JUSUN as part of efforts to resolve the matter, but weeks after, the union insists not to call off the strike until the Accountant General of the Federation pays May allocation into a dedicated account of the National Judicial Council (NJC) from where state Judiciaries would draw its funds.
Speaking on Thursday at the commissioning of the industrial court judges quarters in Rivers, Wike said there will be challenges with implementation, since the executive, and not the judiciary is responsible for presenting the budget to the legislature.
“The constitution recognises three tiers of government; the federal government, the state government and the local government. Under the federal government, we have the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, and the executive is the only arm that can present the budget to the legislature. The judiciary cannot,” he said.
“It is the head of the executive that has the responsibility to present the state expenditure. The executive, legislature and judiciary will put their budget together for the executive to present to the legislature. It is the executive that will still sign it before it becomes implementable, except the legislature overrides it by a two to the third majority.
“Things that they are telling you on financial implementation of the autonomy of judiciary and legislature is a lie, and they know it is not correct. We are practising the federal system and I am not bound by any presidential implementation committee.” Wike stressed.