The call for governors to be impeached for refusing to enforce Executive Order 10, which authorized the enforcement of financial autonomy for the judiciary, has grown louder.
The most recent came from Cross River State’s judiciary and legal luminaries, who compared the governors’ refusal to agree to the order’s execution to Shylock.
The judiciary has been on strike for over a month, protesting the lack of financial control, which forces them to go to the executive with a cap in hand for revenue.
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the Chairman of the Cross River State Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), Comrade Asanya Ebong, regretted the action of the governors who were continually flouting President Buhari’s executive order.
Ebong said, “We have been doing all these dialoguing, agreement, suspension of strike for them to see the need to live up to their biddings, so this time we do not agree on anything without substantial implementation.
“The constitution does not mention the amount of money to be given to the judiciary, but it says any money standing for the credit of the judiciary and didn’t mention N100m, or so; it said any money standing to the credit of the judiciary in the consolidated revenue fund of the state be given to them as budgeted.
“These Governors who refused to implement the financial autonomy to the judiciary deceived the people but swore to uphold the provision of the constitution. They have deceived the people and have flouted the provision of the constitution.
“The House of Assembly should do the needful, maybe impeachment. It is an impeachable offense, they have not lived up to expectation,and not holding on to the provision of the constitution they have sworn to.”
Also speaking, Ntufam Mba UKweni, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), expressed concern that the strike has been ongoing for more than a month.
“I expected that anything given in the constitution should not waste the time of all the major stakeholders, especially the Governors in this case,” UKweni said.
“It is a matter of looking at the clause of the constitution, and coming up with a method for implementing it and starting the process.
“What is more concerning is that the Governors, who have promised to uphold the constitution, should not be seen to be violating its provisions.
“When this problem arose during the tenure of the state’s immediate past governor, we were able to devise a solution.
“Because the courts have been closed, judges are unable to practice.
Many involved with these lawyers’ law firms are the hardest struck.
It is not just the judiciary staff who are struggling but don’t forget that the judiciary workers are paid.
It is the lawyers in private practices that are suffering; many law firms will be unable to pay fees this month, exacerbating the state’s problems.
The more the governors come together to solve the crisis, the better.”
He did, however, call for the resignation of governors who have failed to enforce constitutional provisions.
“I condemn that because it is a violation of the oath they took and an impeachable offense.
It is a breach of a constitutional provision.”
