The proposed meeting between the Nigerian minister of Labour and the striking judiciary workers over the judiciary’s financial autonomy was postponed yesterday the 20th of April 2021 due to the need to “harmonise issues arising from the various meetings held over the crisis”.

This the government representative (Deputy Director/Head, Press and Public Relations, of the Ministry of Labour, Charles Akpan) stated was necessitated “to enable the Federal Government negotiating team to harmonize all issues from the Memorandum of Understanding reached at separate meetings with tiers and arms of government.”

This according to the minister, “was necessary to ensure that the meeting with the unions comes with a Memorandum of Action which is implementable with timelines,”.

No need for a rushed meeting.

“There is no point rushing to do a meeting that will be fruitless. The judiciary, the governors’ forum and even the presidency are involved in this negotiation because the meeting (which) held yesterday was at the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.

“The arising documents are not yet properly harmonized. It will therefore not be fruitful to hold a negotiation where people speak from irreconcilable positions. It won’t help us and it won’t help the unions either,” the minister said.

He further stated that the postponement “is to ensure that the agreement reached at the end of our meeting here is to put into action, with timelines for implementation.”

“So, if we don’t have a paper that is ready to go, then there will be no point for the talk shop,” the minister also said.

It must be noted however that the federal government of Nigeria through the ministry of Labour had proposed a meeting with the union and the striking workers to ensure the judiciary autonomy.

How did we get here

The judiciary workers had embarked on a strike on the 6th of April 2021 in demand of the implementation of section 121(3) of the Nigerian constitution which is often flouted by the governors in Nigeria. The section of the law demands that federally allocated funds from the consolidated revenue account meant for the judiciary at the state level be released directly to the heads of courts in individual states. Most governors however do not comply with this requirement in order to ensure control of the judiciary in their respective states.