Fiscal Autonomy Of The Nigerian Judiciary Is Not Negotiable -By Adeyeye Eyitayo

The financial autonomy of the Nigerian judiciary should not even be a discourse for argument at all. Why? This is because there is  an express provision of the 1999 constitution which grants financial independence to the judiciary. It is a settled matter of law.

The practice where the judiciary often has to beg the executive for funds for its operations and the  piecemeal allocation of funds, through the states’ Ministries of Finance to the judiciary, at the pleasure of either the executive, is alien to our  law  as provided in sections 83(1), and 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution.

Needful to also mention that there’s an existing Federal High Court judgments reinforcing the same provision of the law vis-a-vis financial independence of the judiciary.

This tells you that the agitation of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) didn’t just start today, in fact there was a similar nationwide strike in 2015 but all to no avail.

I recall that former NBA president, Olisa Agbakoba in 2014,  decided to seek judicial affirmation of the constitutional provisions on fiscal autonomy for judiciary both at the federal and state levels by suing all the 36 states governors back then.

The judgment of the Honourable court in that case was hinged on the fact that  remuneration, salaries, allowances and recurrent expenditures of the judiciary being constitutionally guaranteed charges (First Charge) on the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation does not form part of the estimates to be included in the Appropriation Bill as proposed expenditures by the president as is the present practice which is against the provision of Section 81(2) and Section 84 (1), (2), (3), (4) and 7 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

The court was also of the view that any amount standing to the credit of the judiciary in the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation ought not to be released to the judiciary in warrants or other means or through the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Budget Office, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation or any other person or authority in the executive arm as it is the practice at present, but to be paid directly, in whole, to the National Judicial Council (NJC) for disbursement.

In the same thought, in 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari by his executive Order (Order 10) gave sundry modalities as to how the legislature and judiciary autonomy be implemented.

Shortly after, some state Governors kicked against this executive Order while some even went as far as seeking the court to void the Order.

From all indices, it is safe to say that there is a legal framework that safeguards the fiscal autonomy of the judiciary but unfortunately and ridiculously, the political Will of state Governors has now supplanted the constitution, judgments of the courts and even the executive Order of the president all together.

The agitation of JUSUN is not complicated, it is a simple matter of rule of law, a fundamental knowledge of government studies. Maybe we need to remind ourselves that the independence of the judiciary is the plinth of an ideal and modern  democracy. The judiciary can never be independent  when it is at the mercy of the executive for remuneration and other similar entitlements.

Our government cannot be picky in obedience to the law. A government that doesn’t obey the law is setting a terrible precedence and as such creating an infamous model of democracy.