JUSUN, Incessant Strikes And The Rest Of Us

By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, LL.M, Notary
Public

The late Professor Chinua Achebe was right when he said in his
book “The Trouble with Nigeria” that “The trouble with Nigeria is
simply and squarely a failure of leadership .There is nothing
basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong
with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else.
The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its
leaders to rise to the reasonability, to the challenge of personal
example which are the hallmarks of true leaders”. The great
literary giant said this about 38 years ago in the dying days of
the Second Republic in 1983 to be precise. Since then nothing has
changed much. Unlike the set of politicians we had in the First
Republic, those of the Second Republic were worse because they
refused to learn any lesson from the former who even struggled
relentlessly to gain independence for the country.

As a student of history, the idea of workers’ incessant strikes
became a culture and was formally institutionalised during the
reign of those military dictators that sacked the Second Republic
and began to run what they called Military Presidency. It was the
waste of resources and the kinds of reckless and flambouyant lives
they were living as leaders that instigated the workers to be
demanding for more wages and where that was not met, the workers
under the auspices of organisations such as Nigerian Labour
Congress (NLC), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) among
others would declare nationwide strike which often led to
negotiations and agreements that were usually half heartedly made
and not honoured. We live in a country where workers’ strike has
become a culture and that is one of the military legacies. When you
have leaders that live like kings rather than live by examples and
take reasonable care of the national treasury with wisdom, what do
you expect from the workers? Have you ever asked who the real
victims of these incessant strikes are?

The victims of the incessant strikes are neither the government
as employers nor some people as the employees of government, but
the major victims of strikes are the generality of Nigerian
populace. For instance, if the lecturers or the doctors in the
Federal or States universities or hospitals go on strike; does that
affect the emoluments of the employers and employees in those
sectors? No, it doesn’t .But who are the people being affected? It
affects the ordinary Nigerian students in those Federal/State
universities whose parents cannot afford sending them to the
private or foreign universities, while those to be affected by the
strike in the Federal/State hospitals are the ordinary Nigerians
whose sick relatives are abandoned as a result of the health
workers abandoning their works as a result of the strike.

While one is not opposed to the workers going on strike when it
becomes extremely necessary, but making such strike incessant will
not be in the best interest of the Nigerian populace who are the
direct victims of such act. Any strike must be rooted in the milk
of human kindness. While students in the Federal/State Universities
are forced to remain at home indefinitely when ASUU goes on strike,
their counterparts at the private universities continue with their
studies unhindered. Are our leaders in government scheming to kill
the public institutions and the expense of the private schools? Is
that the reason why some of our leaders are establishing private
universities ?The programmes that are meant to be completed within
4 or 5 years are taking more years to be completed. If we have been
having leaders living lives of simplicity rather than flambouyance,
I doubt if workers would be demanding for the increase of wages. I
have said it somewhere else that “We live in a nation that sits on
abundantly endowed natural resources but lack those visionary
leaders that are ready to transform that to the advantages of her
citizens the way leaders like Lee Kuan Yew transformed his country,
Singapore ‘from third world to first’ ”. Where leaders make the
economics of life of the nation to be doing well and the citizens
are equally doing well, the workers will not be asking for the
increase of wages because if that happens and the wages are
increased, that means the price of goods and services will equally
go up. But what we have here is that when wages are increased as a
result of the strike, the workers who are salaries earners only
feel the positive impact while the non-workers who are not salary
earners will feel the negative impact of the increase as they all
patronize the same market. But when you have good and exemplary
leaders in government at all levels everything will be normal

The culture of strike in this country is that, if university or
other institutions’ lecturers are not on strike today, the doctors
will be and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) will be mobilising
other workers for another strike tomorrow. The latest in the news
is that of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) that has
shut down the whole courts in the country clamouring for the
financial autonomy for the judiciary in all states as provided by
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In a civilised
nation, I do not think an association like JUSUN needs to go on
strike for the provisions of the ground norm of the country to be
complied with by the various state governments. But because we have
leaders that do not have respect for the law of the land, the rest
of us are paying the price for their failure to do the needful.
Since an appeal has been to JUSUN by the Chief Justice of Nigeria,
they need to see reason and call off the strike because to remain
adamant and continue with the strike will amount to crying more
than the bereaved.

Since the shutting down of the courts, the major victims of that
action are the lawyers in the private practice and their clients
who have no access to the court to carrying on their business to
earn their livelihood. When JUSUN closes the gate of the courts and
the judges are not allowed to sit, the judges and members of JUSUN
will be paid their salaries by those executives arm of government
whose actions they are protesting against. In such circumstances,
who pays the salaries of the lawyers in the private practice? Can
clients pay when they are not getting the services they expect from
lawyers? It is not a good thing that the JUSUN are closing the
gates of the court when most lawyers and their clients are yet to
recover from the blow inflicted on them by the Covid 19 pandemic.
This is another reason why the JUSUN must have a rethink and call
off the strike.

The clamour for financial autonomy for all the states’ judiciary
is call that must be obey by all the states governors as their
refusal to heed the clamour will be a flagrant disregard to the
Constitution and other court orders related to that. Disobedience
to the Constitution or court orders by those in power who ought to
lead by example is punishable by impeachment of those leaders.
While calling for the financial autonomy for the judiciary, we
equally need to make passionate appeal to our judicial officers on
the bench for change of attitude to the one that will be beneficial
to all the patrons of the courts whether lawyers or their clients.
There is this unconcerned attitude often display by some of our
judicial officers. Honestly the experience in court in recent time
has not been encouraging as to the rate at which the lawyers and
their clients are being disappointed in court despite the directive
issued by the Chief Registrar on behalf of the Chief Judge of Lagos
State to all the Court Registrars dated 21st January 2021 which
states as follow:

“The Hon. Chief Judge of Lagos State, Hon. Justice Kazeem O.
Alogba, has directed that whenever the Court will not be sitting,
all Court Registrar MUST NOTIFY Counsel and Parties involved in the
matter via SMS (text)/ email or both not less than 48 hours before
the date the matter is slated for. Note that failure to comply with
this directive will be met with stern disciplinary action.”

Since the release of this directive there has not been strict
compliance with it. I give kudos to the Chief Judge and few other
courts that whenever the CJ and those courts are not going to sit I
often get text message for a particular matter am doing before the
C.J. I was recently in a court which had earlier given us a date
after about one or two adjournments on the ground that the judge
was probably on an official assignment. We arrived in court as
earlier as 9AM and the court was filled to its capacity with
lawyers and their clients. We had all hope that the judge would sit
that day, but unfortunately, it was not until about to 12PM when
the Court Registrar announced that the court would not be sitting.
While some lawyers were grumbling, their clients were gnashing
their teeth .We had to wait again for close to an hour for our own
matter to be called by the registrar for our attendance to be
registered and another date given. Does this make litigation
practice encouraging?

I thereafter kept asking myself what stopped the judge from
informing the Registrar earlier that the court would not be
sitting? Since the C.J’s directive, I have tried to ask some court
registrars where I have had similar experience why they are not
complying with the C.J’s directive on sending messages earlier that
the courts would not be sitting. The reasons given by some of them
were that the instruction to do that would have to be given by the
Hon. Judges and again the recharge card would have to be made
available for full compliance. Are some judges finding it difficult
to make money or recharge card available for the registrars to
comply with the directive? Before the directive came up, the rules
of court provides that when counsel are filling suit in court, they
must provide in the court process the phone numbers and email
addresses. I think we again need to passionately appeal to our
judicial officers to be making the sacrifice of making recharge
cards available for their registrars to get the messages across
when they know they will not be sitting. That singular act will
surely safe lawyers and their clients the unnecessary stress of
coming when they know already that the court will not sit.

As we are now beating the drums to the hearing of all the
states’ governors to comply with provisions of the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria as to the financial autonomy of all
the states’ judiciary without the need for the JUSUN going on
needless strike, an appeal also need to be extended to our judicial
officers to take their judicial duties very serious. Monday Ubani
Onyekachi, a former Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association
(NBA) recently made a post on social media that : “The legal
profession should be proud of Ogun State Judiciary, most of the
judges sit on time and the most cheering news is that their
judgments are usually unbiased and rarely questionable , they are
worthy of emulation , thumbs up!”

Several lawyers practicing before the Ogun State judiciary have
testified to this fact which has now become a big bonus for that
state judiciary .For the judiciary of other States to achieve this
fit, I am of the view that the burden is on the Chief Judges who
must mobilize other judges in their states’ judiciary to live up to
expectation and live above board like the Ceaser’s wife. The system
has been very fair to our judicial officers and they also need to
reciprocate that gesture by discharging their judicial duties
accordingly.

There is the need for the patriotic Nigerians to be speaking out
and be working against the incessant strikes that have become a
culture and traditional in this country. Our leaders at all levels
of governance must lead by example and be advised to embrace simple
life style rather than flambouyant life style and waste of the
national treasury as these are things that induced unnecessary
clamour for the increase in wages by workers and when that is not
heeded, they resort to the strike which is not good enough for our
country. To again borrow form the words of late Professor Achebe
:

“…Nigeria is not beyond change .I am saying that Nigeria can
change today if she discovers leaders who have the will, the
ability and the vision. Such people are rare in any time or place.
But it is the duty of the enlightened citizens to lead the way in
their discovery and to create an atmosphere conducive to their
emergence .If this conscious effort is not made, good leaders, like
good money ,will be driven out by bad.”

Since the collapse of the First Republic, the hope of getting
patriotic and visionary leaders seems to have been eluding us in
this country. Those leaders that got independence for us in this
country were youth that later dominated the First Republic
politics, even most of those military guys that eventually aborted
that democratically elected government and took over from them were
youth. The most unfortunate thing today is that despite the misrule
of both the People Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressive
Congress (APC), there is yet to be an alternative on the ground.
Serious and well determined Nigerian Youths who are ready or
prepared to form a formidable political party to wrestle power from
those two political parties that have been recycling their members
are not on the ground. The Nigerian youths rather than using their
brains to think on how to form a strong political party that will
throw up visionary and honest leaders for the leaderships of this
country are unfortunately busy threatening organizing another
Endsars# protest while the earlier one had proved abortive. Until
most Nigerian people learn to say No to the “bread and butter”
politics, the “one- chance” politicians will continue to have their
way to the leaderships of this country and with their outrageous
life style they will continue to induce more incessant workers’
strikes to the benefit of both sides while the rest of us will
continue to be at the receiving end. Let us all use our brains to
make positive change in this country.

NOTE: Anyone is at liberty to disagree with
my above submissions as I will surely appreciate a balanced, fair
and objective rebuttal.

08055476823, 08164683735:
abdulrasheedibrahim362@gmail.com

By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, LL.M, Notary
Public

The late Professor Chinua Achebe was right when he said in his
book “The Trouble with Nigeria” that “The trouble with Nigeria is
simply and squarely a failure of leadership .There is nothing
basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong
with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else.
The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its
leaders to rise to the reasonability, to the challenge of personal
example which are the hallmarks of true leaders”. The great
literary giant said this about 38 years ago in the dying days of
the Second Republic in 1983 to be precise. Since then nothing has
changed much. Unlike the set of politicians we had in the First
Republic, those of the Second Republic were worse because they
refused to learn any lesson from the former who even struggled
relentlessly to gain independence for the country.

As a student of history, the idea of workers’ incessant strikes
became a culture and was formally institutionalised during the
reign of those military dictators that sacked the Second Republic
and began to run what they called Military Presidency. It was the
waste of resources and the kinds of reckless and flambouyant lives
they were living as leaders that instigated the workers to be
demanding for more wages and where that was not met, the workers
under the auspices of organisations such as Nigerian Labour
Congress (NLC), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) among
others would declare nationwide strike which often led to
negotiations and agreements that were usually half heartedly made
and not honoured. We live in a country where workers’ strike has
become a culture and that is one of the military legacies. When you
have leaders that live like kings rather than live by examples and
take reasonable care of the national treasury with wisdom, what do
you expect from the workers? Have you ever asked who the real
victims of these incessant strikes are?

The victims of the incessant strikes are neither the government
as employers nor some people as the employees of government, but
the major victims of strikes are the generality of Nigerian
populace. For instance, if the lecturers or the doctors in the
Federal or States universities or hospitals go on strike; does that
affect the emoluments of the employers and employees in those
sectors? No, it doesn’t .But who are the people being affected? It
affects the ordinary Nigerian students in those Federal/State
universities whose parents cannot afford sending them to the
private or foreign universities, while those to be affected by the
strike in the Federal/State hospitals are the ordinary Nigerians
whose sick relatives are abandoned as a result of the health
workers abandoning their works as a result of the strike.

While one is not opposed to the workers going on strike when it
becomes extremely necessary, but making such strike incessant will
not be in the best interest of the Nigerian populace who are the
direct victims of such act. Any strike must be rooted in the milk
of human kindness. While students in the Federal/State Universities
are forced to remain at home indefinitely when ASUU goes on strike,
their counterparts at the private universities continue with their
studies unhindered. Are our leaders in government scheming to kill
the public institutions and the expense of the private schools? Is
that the reason why some of our leaders are establishing private
universities ?The programmes that are meant to be completed within
4 or 5 years are taking more years to be completed. If we have been
having leaders living lives of simplicity rather than flambouyance,
I doubt if workers would be demanding for the increase of wages. I
have said it somewhere else that “We live in a nation that sits on
abundantly endowed natural resources but lack those visionary
leaders that are ready to transform that to the advantages of her
citizens the way leaders like Lee Kuan Yew transformed his country,
Singapore ‘from third world to first’ ”. Where leaders make the
economics of life of the nation to be doing well and the citizens
are equally doing well, the workers will not be asking for the
increase of wages because if that happens and the wages are
increased, that means the price of goods and services will equally
go up. But what we have here is that when wages are increased as a
result of the strike, the workers who are salaries earners only
feel the positive impact while the non-workers who are not salary
earners will feel the negative impact of the increase as they all
patronize the same market. But when you have good and exemplary
leaders in government at all levels everything will be normal

The culture of strike in this country is that, if university or
other institutions’ lecturers are not on strike today, the doctors
will be and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) will be mobilising
other workers for another strike tomorrow. The latest in the news
is that of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) that has
shut down the whole courts in the country clamouring for the
financial autonomy for the judiciary in all states as provided by
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In a civilised
nation, I do not think an association like JUSUN needs to go on
strike for the provisions of the ground norm of the country to be
complied with by the various state governments. But because we have
leaders that do not have respect for the law of the land, the rest
of us are paying the price for their failure to do the needful.
Since an appeal has been to JUSUN by the Chief Justice of Nigeria,
they need to see reason and call off the strike because to remain
adamant and continue with the strike will amount to crying more
than the bereaved.

Since the shutting down of the courts, the major victims of that
action are the lawyers in the private practice and their clients
who have no access to the court to carrying on their business to
earn their livelihood. When JUSUN closes the gate of the courts and
the judges are not allowed to sit, the judges and members of JUSUN
will be paid their salaries by those executives arm of government
whose actions they are protesting against. In such circumstances,
who pays the salaries of the lawyers in the private practice? Can
clients pay when they are not getting the services they expect from
lawyers? It is not a good thing that the JUSUN are closing the
gates of the court when most lawyers and their clients are yet to
recover from the blow inflicted on them by the Covid 19 pandemic.
This is another reason why the JUSUN must have a rethink and call
off the strike.

The clamour for financial autonomy for all the states’ judiciary
is call that must be obey by all the states governors as their
refusal to heed the clamour will be a flagrant disregard to the
Constitution and other court orders related to that. Disobedience
to the Constitution or court orders by those in power who ought to
lead by example is punishable by impeachment of those leaders.
While calling for the financial autonomy for the judiciary, we
equally need to make passionate appeal to our judicial officers on
the bench for change of attitude to the one that will be beneficial
to all the patrons of the courts whether lawyers or their clients.
There is this unconcerned attitude often display by some of our
judicial officers. Honestly the experience in court in recent time
has not been encouraging as to the rate at which the lawyers and
their clients are being disappointed in court despite the directive
issued by the Chief Registrar on behalf of the Chief Judge of Lagos
State to all the Court Registrars dated 21st January 2021 which
states as follow:

“The Hon. Chief Judge of Lagos State, Hon. Justice Kazeem O.
Alogba, has directed that whenever the Court will not be sitting,
all Court Registrar MUST NOTIFY Counsel and Parties involved in the
matter via SMS (text)/ email or both not less than 48 hours before
the date the matter is slated for. Note that failure to comply with
this directive will be met with stern disciplinary action.”

Since the release of this directive there has not been strict
compliance with it. I give kudos to the Chief Judge and few other
courts that whenever the CJ and those courts are not going to sit I
often get text message for a particular matter am doing before the
C.J. I was recently in a court which had earlier given us a date
after about one or two adjournments on the ground that the judge
was probably on an official assignment. We arrived in court as
earlier as 9AM and the court was filled to its capacity with
lawyers and their clients. We had all hope that the judge would sit
that day, but unfortunately, it was not until about to 12PM when
the Court Registrar announced that the court would not be sitting.
While some lawyers were grumbling, their clients were gnashing
their teeth .We had to wait again for close to an hour for our own
matter to be called by the registrar for our attendance to be
registered and another date given. Does this make litigation
practice encouraging?

I thereafter kept asking myself what stopped the judge from
informing the Registrar earlier that the court would not be
sitting? Since the C.J’s directive, I have tried to ask some court
registrars where I have had similar experience why they are not
complying with the C.J’s directive on sending messages earlier that
the courts would not be sitting. The reasons given by some of them
were that the instruction to do that would have to be given by the
Hon. Judges and again the recharge card would have to be made
available for full compliance. Are some judges finding it difficult
to make money or recharge card available for the registrars to
comply with the directive? Before the directive came up, the rules
of court provides that when counsel are filling suit in court, they
must provide in the court process the phone numbers and email
addresses. I think we again need to passionately appeal to our
judicial officers to be making the sacrifice of making recharge
cards available for their registrars to get the messages across
when they know they will not be sitting. That singular act will
surely safe lawyers and their clients the unnecessary stress of
coming when they know already that the court will not sit.

As we are now beating the drums to the hearing of all the
states’ governors to comply with provisions of the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria as to the financial autonomy of all
the states’ judiciary without the need for the JUSUN going on
needless strike, an appeal also need to be extended to our judicial
officers to take their judicial duties very serious. Monday Ubani
Onyekachi, a former Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association
(NBA) recently made a post on social media that : “The legal
profession should be proud of Ogun State Judiciary, most of the
judges sit on time and the most cheering news is that their
judgments are usually unbiased and rarely questionable , they are
worthy of emulation , thumbs up!”

Several lawyers practicing before the Ogun State judiciary have
testified to this fact which has now become a big bonus for that
state judiciary .For the judiciary of other States to achieve this
fit, I am of the view that the burden is on the Chief Judges who
must mobilize other judges in their states’ judiciary to live up to
expectation and live above board like the Ceaser’s wife. The system
has been very fair to our judicial officers and they also need to
reciprocate that gesture by discharging their judicial duties
accordingly.

There is the need for the patriotic Nigerians to be speaking out
and be working against the incessant strikes that have become a
culture and traditional in this country. Our leaders at all levels
of governance must lead by example and be advised to embrace simple
life style rather than flambouyant life style and waste of the
national treasury as these are things that induced unnecessary
clamour for the increase in wages by workers and when that is not
heeded, they resort to the strike which is not good enough for our
country. To again borrow form the words of late Professor Achebe
:

“…Nigeria is not beyond change .I am saying that Nigeria can
change today if she discovers leaders who have the will, the
ability and the vision. Such people are rare in any time or place.
But it is the duty of the enlightened citizens to lead the way in
their discovery and to create an atmosphere conducive to their
emergence .If this conscious effort is not made, good leaders, like
good money ,will be driven out by bad.”

Since the collapse of the First Republic, the hope of getting
patriotic and visionary leaders seems to have been eluding us in
this country. Those leaders that got independence for us in this
country were youth that later dominated the First Republic
politics, even most of those military guys that eventually aborted
that democratically elected government and took over from them were
youth. The most unfortunate thing today is that despite the misrule
of both the People Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressive
Congress (APC), there is yet to be an alternative on the ground.
Serious and well determined Nigerian Youths who are ready or
prepared to form a formidable political party to wrestle power from
those two political parties that have been recycling their members
are not on the ground. The Nigerian youths rather than using their
brains to think on how to form a strong political party that will
throw up visionary and honest leaders for the leaderships of this
country are unfortunately busy threatening organizing another
Endsars# protest while the earlier one had proved abortive. Until
most Nigerian people learn to say No to the “bread and butter”
politics, the “one- chance” politicians will continue to have their
way to the leaderships of this country and with their outrageous
life style they will continue to induce more incessant workers’
strikes to the benefit of both sides while the rest of us will
continue to be at the receiving end. Let us all use our brains to
make positive change in this country.

NOTE: Anyone is at liberty to disagree with
my above submissions as I will surely appreciate a balanced, fair
and objective rebuttal.

08055476823, 08164683735:
abdulrasheedibrahim362@gmail.com