The change, judiciary expects

The Nigerian political scene witnessed a wind of change that swept across the nation at the just concluded election, history was made as incumbents seeking re-election lost to the thumbs of a larger percentage of the electorate who were overwhelmed with the clamour for change and ensured that Nigeria gave change a chance, to the […]

The Nigerian political scene witnessed a wind of change that swept across the nation at the just concluded election, history was made as incumbents seeking re-election lost to the thumbs of a larger percentage of the electorate who were overwhelmed with the clamour for change and ensured that Nigeria gave change a chance, to the surprise of some who ignored the awareness level of Nigerians through social media at this current digital age.
 The elections have come and gone and a new administration is set to commence work May 29, 2015. So many campaign promises of how the standard of living of Nigerians would be improved, infrastructure developed and corruption reduced to its barest minimum, no doubt if these promises are actualized Nigeria would be a better place to live in and I can’t wait to be part of it {God sparing our lives}.
 In all of these, one {1} important yet neglected arm of government i.e the judiciary also expects the wind of change to blow towards its direction. By virtue of Section 6{1} 2011 C.F.R.N {as amended} “the judicial powers of the federation shall be vested in the judicial courts to which this section relates, being courts established for the federation…” The  Judiciary as an arm of government plays a vital role in protecting the sanctity of the country, it safeguards against the abuse of the fundamental human rights of its citizenry, upholds the rule of law and serve as a check to the excesses of the Executive and Legislature, all in a bid to avoid anarchy and chaos in the society.
 In simple words, without a functioning judiciary a country cannot maintain the enforcement of law and order, this is how important the judiciary is to a nation.
The Governor-elect of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-rufai in his APC manifesto for Kaduna State at page {14} paragraph I, promised to “carry out a status assessment to support the reform and strengthening of the state justice system for efficient administration and dispensation of justice to determine levels of appropriate funding and infrastructure and equipment needs for all Kaduna State courts…”, one can only hope this includes financial autonomy for the state judiciary.
 As at 14th April, 2015 fifteen {15} states Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria {JUSUN} were still on strike because they seek financial autonomy from their respective state governors as enshrined in the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.  These governors have held unto monies that ought ordinarily to be in the purse of the judiciary and have still not used the money to change the face of our judicial system for obvious reasons, Majority of the court rooms are dilapidated due to neglect, the technology used to assist the court are obsolete, support staff are not in touch with new trends of law due to lack of training and awareness which would improve service delivery, some are owed months of salaries encouraging bribery and corruption. There is utter disregard of court orders by government agencies and it’s not healthy for our judiciary.
 The financial autonomy if granted would go a long way in salvaging the face of our courts, since the heads of the court concerned are more familiar with the needs and yearnings of the necessary infrastructure to achieve excellence than a governor who is already overburdened with other pressing matters that need his direct attention.
 The judiciary needs to be given its due independence as it is not an arm of the Executive but an arm of government, to be fair to all involved and for a balanced judicial system, the Executive need not have any control over the judiciary, meaning it should be free from all executive influence.
 Furthermore, the judiciary needs to be at par with the other arms of government in terms of monetary allocation {funding}, entitlements & allowances. It is possible in Nigeria for a senator to afford a certain colossal amount of money to bribe a judge because he earns far more {in no small way} than the judge. This suggests that there is a wide margin between what a senator earns and what a judge takes home at the end of the month. This writer is not advocating an unreasonable increase in salaries for judges & magistrates but a reasonable slash in the monies accruing to members of the Executive & Legislature, to enable the Judiciary be at par with the other arms as one cannot survive without the other.
 Elected governors of the states affected should concede to the terms of JUSUNa, let the strike be called off and the judiciary functioning again.
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