Financial autonomy: Governors remain our obstacle —JUSUN President

The national president, Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), Comrade Marwan Mustapha Adamu, speaks on some of the problems in the judiciary, especially on its financial autonomy and independence, at the state level in particular. He also speaks on the Executive Order, which could permit President Muhammadu Buhari to give permission to the Accountant General of the Federation to deduct allocation to state judiciary at source and why he returned over N13 million excess payment to his union account by the Delta State Government. SOJI-EZE FAGBEMI, bring the excerpt.

Many Nigerians were surprised recently when you returned about N13 million, an excess payment to JUSUN checkoff dues account. What really happened?

Honestly, I didn’t want this matter to go to the media because a lot of interpretations would come after it. To me, and in the union we believe in our conscience and the fear of the Almighty God and that’s why we did what we did. But all the same, going with the situation at hand I will be left with no choice but to respond to this question. When we returned the cheque, we didn’t want it to be ceremonial, I went there alone, to meet the SSG to the Delta State Government, but he found it worthy to make it public.

What actually happened is that the system of collecting our checkoff dues is through our union at the state level or the government will pay directly to our national account; then we will refer back to the state and then the NLC and other stakeholders who are involved in the sharing formula.

In this case, the amount due for JUSUN from Delta State government was N1.4 million, that was the practice and that is one of the highest. That is the money (checkoff dues) meant for us monthly.

I was in Kano attending the NEC meeting of NLC when I saw an alert of N14 million, I kept mute because I knew something was going wrong. I left the Kano meeting abruptly, I came back to Abuja to find out what was going on, and I realized that the money was from Delta State. Before I came, the account department tried to find out from the chairman of Delta State but the chairman was not aware. He therefore contacted those responsible for the payment of checkoff dues and they said it should be an error; and that it should be paid back through that account or they would send alternative account so that we could send the money between my account department and that account.

I said no, that was not the ideal practice, if there is an error, you should make it public because you can send the money back and anything can happen and in the future it will be a problem. I insisted that the money was not meant for us. It is not that we didn’t need money but the money was not our money. That is the only reason why we returned the money, it did not belong to us, our money is N1.4 million.

If you give me N14 million, I should be able to find out what it is meant for, so I decided to contact my bank to subtract the amount which was meant for us which was N1.4m, raise a cheque, draft a cover letter, state the narrations, sign and bring the letter to me. They did that and we quickly rushed to Delta. I called the permanent secretary who happened to be a friend of mine in the SSG office. I asked if he could book me an appointment to see the SSG and I stated my mission to him.

We met with the SSG and he found it surprising, stating that there was the need to call some of his immediate staff and we submitted the cheques and they appreciated it and I left.

In essence what we try to do is to show good morality, the reputation is more important than money. Not even the issue of if we leave the seat of the union, we will leave the entire world and account for what we did. Not that I’m perfect but I don’t think there is any moral justification for us to take the money. It may be possible from the narration of the SSG about this occurrence, that there might be something like a syndicate. But for me, our reason as a union is that, it was not for us, so the best thing was for us to send it back.

What will you then say about the high level of corruption in governance of this country?

For me, corruption has many interpretations. Taking bribe or money is not only corruption. Corruption is more deep-rooted than taking or giving money. It is far more than that and it permeates every area of our life. Mostly, in African countries and let me narrow it to Nigeria and within the service. In general, the system is bad to the extent that for me we have a lot to do before we can get out of this mess. From my own understanding, the agencies that are solely responsible to tackle corruption in this country need to re-strategize and put more efforts in their approach in curbing this.

Your union has been in the forefront of reform in the Judiciary sector, asking for independence of the judiciary and financial autonomy. In doing this,  you had to tackle some state governors, can you tell us what is the status now?

On the issue of reform, we have taken a number of measures. One in particular has been in the forefront and in public knowledge. You are aware that we have been fighting for more than eight years in court, judgment has been passed but all the governors are not complying with that. No single governor is complying with the provision of section 121.3 of the constitution, nobody is complying with section 81.3, 81.9, and nobody is complying with section 162.9. All these provisions of the constitution deal with the issue of financial autonomy of the judiciary. But certainly, after that even the former Chief Justice of Nigeria set up a committee to reform the judiciary, and they met, discussed and made a comprehensive report to harmonize the various previous reports on the issue of justice sector of the judiciary.

But let me say clearly, it didn’t work. Recently, after the alteration of the 1999 Constitution, section 121.3 in particular, the inclusion of state house of assembly is expected to have financial autonomy. A lot of people give it a different meaning, for us in the judiciary, that alteration of the constitution does not change anything in terms of financial autonomy, it is the same provision of the constitution, but the only addition is the inclusion of state assembly to get financial autonomy.

What we benefitted from that action of the alteration is the political will of the government to ensure the compliance of the provision of the constitution. Previously, the entire state governors had acted against the provisions of the constitution, and have not obeyed that aspect of the constitution on the financial autonomy of the judiciary, and the Federal Government is not doing anything to support the realization of that financial autonomy. That signing by Mr. President gave a political will in realizing that. The president went ahead to set up a committee on the implementation of the financial autonomy headed by the  Attorney General of the Federation, with JUSUN and PASSAN as members. We dealt with the issue with the involvement of all stakeholders. We met and the issue has been looked into holistically and a report has been presented to the president. Once we go back to the state governors, in my opinion, we are going back to square zero, because they will not comply and it will not go as it is supposed to.

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But in that report, there is an Executive Order which allows and would permit the president to sign in case any state governor refused to comply, so that the Accountant General of the Federation will deduct from the source and pay directly to the head of court. And that is the provision of the constitution, that is what it says, and that is what the governors are not complying with.

Today, more than two-thirds or almost 80% of state courts are in sorry state with the exception of three states. If you go to judiciary headquarters of most of the states you won’t like what you will see, nonetheless other lower courts. They are in rented shops and houses, so dilapidated, you can’t imagine such places will house a court. How can you get justice where a court that will preside over a case is a house of somebody? Unless if we are mocking ourselves.

The bulk of the cases daily that have to do with the common man are in the customary courts, magistrates’ courts and Sharia courts. In a day, a magistrates’ court can entertain 25 cases, a customary court judge can entertain 10 to 12 cases, a Sharia court judge can entertain 13 to 14 cases. While mostly in high courts and the other big courts, they entertain two or three and the rest is adjournment. These are some of the issues, and why we have been fighting for financial autonomy.

Our major obstacles are the governors, they are frustrating all efforts.

But you were in court on this issue?

We went to the extent of interpretation. Previously, people thought all union is known for is strike all the time. We even put that aside, and in a more civilized way we went to court and spent almost two years in court. Judgment has been passed in favour of the judiciary, no single governor has appealed that judgement and no single governor is complying with that provision of the constitution and the court judgment.

Are you then waiting for the President to sign?

We submitted the report and until the President assign those recommendations, the committee will continue to monitor full implementation. We submitted the report during the time of handing over which is delaying it, but the logistics and other things involved may delay too. But I believe within the shortest period of time the President will sign that Executive Order to approve the recommendation of the report so that the financial independence of judiciary and state assembly will come to limelight.

Whether there is signing or no signing, the two positions under no circumstances, are very clear.  Section 121.3; section 81.3  and 162.9 have  clearly defined it but they (governors) are breaching it.

The issue of conforming with court ruling is becoming an old phenomenon especially with the development in the country. There is a number of cases that is why we are insisting on this issue;  in terms of complying with court ruling or court judgement.  We need to do a holistic work to make sure that the total independence of Judiciary is ensured and that compliance with court judgement is not washed away; because it is now a serious problem in the country.

Lagos and one other state developed a kind of mechanism where marshals have been trained and are working to ensure that compliance with court order is mandatory. Also, in terms of the compliance to court order, the lawyers are the problems on many occasions. After  passing a judgement, they will go and file an appeal and bring a lot of technicalities. To those who don’t know this, they will put the blames on the judiciary.

The litigant contributes a lot in terms of frustrating the compliance with court judgement. But I’m sure the major problem of Nigeria is the non-adherence to the rule of law. In this country, if we adhere to the rule of law, 70% of our problems would be solved.

The judgement you obtained from the Federal High Court, permitted you to garnishing the account of most state governments who refuse to comply. Where are you on this?

On the issue of garnishing, we have started with at least two or three pilot states and for us it worked. We did it to Edo where we have a serious challenge till date. After we filed the suit, the process of garnishee is ongoing, the counsel to the Edo State Government at that time and the court approached us with out of court settlement.  I remembered at that time, close to N1billion was about to be garnishee in the account of Edo State, but because of that intervention; and nothing is wrong in settling matter out of the court; we accept it in good faith. We even returned back the cheques issued to us and at the end, after we obliged our undertaking, the government of Edo State state breached that agreement. Till date we are in the problem with Edo and we are pushing all and the best option is to go back to the court to seek for garnishing for that.

But for Benue, we went to court to garnish the account and the Benue Government approached us for the same out of court settlement. With undertaking of 10-month salary to be paying two months’ salary in every month.  Last year December, they fulfilled their own part and the matter ceiled up.

As I am speaking to you right now, people may think because we are going to court we’ll manipulate the process but that is not true. We filed garnishee against Kogi State Government and Niger for almost 8 months but the matter has been adjourned. But we are using another instrument to ensure that the issue of financial autonomy see the light of the day. So, we are doing everything possible to be successful. The issue of garnishee is not abandoned.

How can the prison be decongested?

For me, the government should ensure that the rule of law is adhered to; because the issue of prison decongestion has been for long, but with not much impact. All the critical stakeholders are not being carried along in that regard. But when you are talking about the issue of decongestion of prison, not only the issue of police should be in the front burner. For instance, Magistrate court and Sharia court judges, Customary courts where in a court you’ll get about 100 cases, that is where the bulk of the waiting trial and other illegality are, they are not been carried along in ensuring that it is checked, secondly, our members contributing too.

A judge is not the person to keep the record, he is not the person to fill the warrant that will take people to court or the prosecutor that will prosecute them in court. That is where the problem comes. Whether directly or indirectly, some critical stakeholders must be carried along in mapping out the strategies that will ensure prison decongestion.