Nigerian lawyers laud President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the law granting financial autonomy to the judiciary and House of Assembly at the State level

By Anayo Ezugwu

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has been commended for signing the bill that grants financial autonomy to the state judiciary into law. Some lawyers, who spoke to Realnews, said the law will end impunity and arbitrariness on the part of the executive.

They said assenting to a bill that will successfully checkmate the powers of the executive arm of government is a remarkable effort on the part of the President. Monday Ubani, second vice president, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, said the law would enable the judiciary address infrastructural decay in the system.

“Overtime we have been discussing this issue that our judicial system is not working well especially with regard to accelerated hearing of our cases and quicker dispensation of justice. Part of the problem is actually the independence of the judiciary and if you look at the financial autonomy, they are battling with infrastructural issues, welfare of judges and the chief judges of the states do not have financial autonomy.

“With this amendment done on the constitution guaranteeing financial independence to the judiciary especially at the state level, you find out that some of these problems will be sorted out. The chief judges will now be in-charge of money budgeted for them. They are no longer going to the governors to ask for money. They only thing we need to do now is to check the activities of the chief judges of states so that we would not solve a problem and create another one.”

Commending the bill, Ubani said: “We have been clamouring for independence of the judiciary system and we are beginning to see the result in this regard. With this financial autonomy, judiciary would begin to fix the infrastructural decay in the system. In some of the courts, there are no seats for sitting. Some of them don’t have fans, air condition and computers. They are still using long hand but with this financial autonomy, we can encourage judges to make use of all the electronic system that aid judicial process. In developed countries, we see them make use of information technology, IT.”

On his part, Abdulaziz Ibrahim, lawyer, said the law was a step in the right direction in achieving proper separation of powers in government. “I’m very happy that senate passed the law and for Buhari signing it. The law is a good one. But the truth is that it is a serious issue because it would enable us know whether judicial workers are good managers of resources.

“The personnel managers in the judiciary are not always serious but with this law, they will start managing their money. With this, the checks and balances will come in properly. This law would make the judiciary more transparent and judgement would be more serious now. They have to get more professional people to head their departments. The judiciary has to employ more qualified chartered accountants to be able to check their books. And the chief justices of the states have to know what he/she would spend money on,” he said.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on Friday, June 8, signed the bill which allows state judiciary to directly access funds to their credit, and no longer through the state governors. Ita Enang, senior special assistant to President Buhari on National Assembly matters, who announced this, said: “I just want to inform you that His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari today assented to the Constitution Fourth Alteration Bill which grants financial authonomy and independence to the Houses of Assembly of the respective states and to the Judiciary of the respective states.

“Therefore upon this signature the amounts standing to the credit of the judiciary are to be now be paid directly to the judiciary of those states, no more through the governors and no more from the governors and then the amounts standing to the credit of the Houses of Assembly of the respective states are now to be paid directly to the Houses of Assembly of that state for the benefit of the legislators and the management of the States Houses of Assembly. This grants full autonomy now to the judiciary at the state level and the Houses of Assembly at the state level,” he said.

Jun. 15, 2018 @ 14:45 GMT |