Anambra JUSUN’s intransigence and illegality of CONJUSS

By Polycarp Onwubiko

The Anambra branch of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria [JUSUN] has brazenly demonstrated intransigence by holding the entire justice system in the state at the jugular veins due to crass ignorance that its agitation for the “Consolidated Judicial Staff Salary Structure [CONJUSS] which is simply federal salary is illegal. Governorswho have implemented the CONJUSSwallowed in ignorance. Chief Peter Obi in 2011 out of ignorance promised to implement it when the revenue improved.

One wonders the type of legal practice in this apparently accursed country. The sad state of law practice in the country today derivesfrom the rot in the society where people who are not prepared for the rigours of higher education resorted to examination malpractice to acquire certificates. Education must be removed from the concurrent legislative list and put in the residual legislative list to prevent the federal government from imposing their policies on the state governments who have the where-withal to reposition education to meet global standard. The secretsoutherners do not know is that as education is in the concurrent list, where it is said that the states can equally formulate policies on education but the federal policies are willy-nilly are forced on them with covert sanctions on default thus brazenly violating theprinciples of federal system of government which the founding fathers of Nigeria independence preferred due to the multi-ethnic and multi-sectariannature of society. This deceit led to the establishment of JAMB to set back the fast educational advancement of the Igbos due to their daring exploit during the Biafra war. There is nowhere in the world where admission into universities are centralized and ludicrously based on quota system; therefore JAMB must be abolished during the inevitable restructuring of the country.In the pseudo federalism, MDA’s are centralized so as to enable the Northern Moslems to be in the strategic position to be controlling everything. For instancethe pervasive and intractable insecurity in all the nook and cranny of the country is due to the centralization of police contrary to the practice of federalism.The federal government has woefully failed to fund the police and compelled state governments to be expending their funds to purchase vehicles and security gadgets at the expense of lack of basic infrastructures and amenities in their states. In his article in The AUTHORITY, Dan Amor summarized the muddle in false federalism thus: “What Nigeria needs at the moment is a new order in which there must be total devolution of powers from the centre to the federating units. States should generate their own electricity, own their refineries, build their roads, etc. In fact the federal government has no business in agriculture because the lands belong to the states. We need as leaders who have good understanding of the dynamics of the Nigerian federalism and the dialectical forces that define its character. These are people who must uproot the emerging old order and plant the emerging democracy in all its ramifications.”

The prolonged Anambra JUSUN strkewas the failure of the Peter Obi administration to correctly interpretthe constitution pertaining to salary administration in the country. The fact remains that there is only one statutory body [National Salaries and wages Commission] that fixes salaries and allowances which makes the salaries and allowances of the federal workers to be remarkably different from state workers. No umbrella trade union is empowered by any law to compel any state governments to pay federal salary structure to the state workers. This arrant improper rendition of the law was exploited by few trade unions like the Nigerian Medical Association [NMA] which their state affiliate branches to embark on prolonged strike actions that compelled the governors to cave in to their illegal demand.

Ab initio, it was wrong for the state branches of JUSUN to believethat the judgment of the high court covered them asit was for the federal judicial staff since the court cannot fix the salary structure of state workers.  Therefore, the state JUSUN strike actions and the partial acquiescence of the former Anambra state were based on crass ignorance of the law on fixing of salaries in a federal system of government.  The issue of the supposed “Judicial Independence” does not concern the states because the country practices federal system of government. The supposed Judiciary independence was one of the ploys of the Northern Moslems to centralize all the MDA’s to concretize the false federalism. Since the executive arm of the federal government could no longer interfere with the judiciary, they do whatever they like. Some judges are over 70 years but due cover-ups they are still in the service. It does not take rocket science to detect one who is over 70 years going by their countence and physique, carriage and public appearances. Some of the judges look haggard, weak; and psychologically are not comfortable as they appear in public in the glare of television cameras, even as they dodge the camera. To ascertain their real ages, judges in the federal public service should submit their First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC) to the Head of Service of the federation for screening. Who is fooling whom in this accursed country’s?

It is ridiculous that the Chief Judges of the states will be struggling for the share of monthly statutory allocations from the federation accounts with the state governors; in addition with the internal revenue generation, IGR. What the feudal caliphate who resist restructuring of the country to reinvent True Federalism is to take over the payment of salaries of judiciary workers in the states. It is out-right rubbish for the umbrella union of JUSUN to rush to the high court compelling state governments to pay federal salaries and allowances tojudiciary staff. Thus it was wrong for the former governor to have promised JUSUN that he would implement the federal salary structure when the state’s financial profile improved. It is naïve for the leadership of JUSUN to say that the state internally generated revenue profile has jumpstarted. That government is a continuum does not mean that the successor is bound to continue with the promises of his predecessor since circumstances might have changed. Continuity is for the right things. For instance Governor Willie Obiano in the 2016 Appropriation Bill did not indicate that he would continue to hijack the monthly statutory allocations and sources of IGR of the local government councils as one of the sources of revenue which was illegally done by the former Governor. Also there is a rumbling that he would harmonize pensions which his predecessor refused to do in spite of their passionate appeals.

The alleged memorandum of understanding  supposedly entered by ‘all parties to the dispute” is non-sense as far as the present state government is concerned because it was based on crass ignorance of the law on fixing of salaries which is the exclusive preserve of a statutory body and not high court.
Governor Willy Obiano should not payJUSUN the CONSUSS even the finances of the state improved; he will face agitation from other workers because they are facing the market. It is morally wrong to discriminate in salary dispensation in a state. He should summon the political will to stop the illegality which other governors have falling into out of crass ignorance. JUSUN strikeis not politically motivated as it was based on crass ignorance of the labour manipulations which some governors did not know.

Mr. Onwubiko, an author and public affairs analyst, wrote via polymbiko @yahoo.com AwkaAnambra state