The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has called on the Federal Government to desist from using security agencies to intimidate and influence judges if it truly believes in the independence of the judiciary.
The governor accused the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government of stirring up the issue of financial autonomy to ingratiate themselves with the judiciary after years of obvious frosty relationship.
Governor Wike made this assertion at the Nigerian Bar Association President’s Dinner in honour of delegates to the 61st annual conference of the NBA in Port Harcourt. He reiterated his disagreement with the stance of the Federal Government and the Nigerian Governors’ Forum on the issue of financial autonomy for the judiciary.
According to him, confining autonomy for the judiciary to finance alone was antithetical to the concept of independence of the judiciary.
‘Autonomy is also allowing them (judges) to do what they are supposed to do without you intimidating them. Autonomy is not, give money. Autonomy is, stop using the security agencies to influence them on what to do. We have restricted autonomy to mean where you can award contract. No, that is not auto.
‘Allow them to perform. Allow them to work according to the law and not to tell DSS to come and meet a judge and say, look, we hear this is what you people want to give as judgement on this matter. We heard that you have N2.5 million in your account. And then the judge says, well, I don’t want to be embarrassed, let me just do it the way you people want it.’
Governor Wike stressed that legislation on financial autonomy for judiciary was unnecessary because the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria clearly spelt out the autonomy of the three arms of government.
Ekiti State Governor and Chairman, Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, observed that some Nigerians have erroneously assumed that governors were opposed to legislative and judicial autonomy.
‘We are not opposed to it, we have done everything to support it. Many of our states have even started implementing it long before Executive Order 10 came to the fore. And the position we’ve consistently taken is not so much oppose to judicial and legislative autonomy, but oppose to Executive Order 10 as a vehicle for achieving judicial and legislative autonomy. That has been the bone of contention and a lot of that has also revolved around the modalities for implementing judicial autonomy.’
He said almost all the states of the federation have enacted legislation on financial autonomy for the judiciary, and implementation have started in some of the states.
Governor Fayemi noted that the issue of financial autonomy has been controversial with regards to who is responsible for capital funding and expenditure of the courts. According to him, the NGF is already seeking legal clarification on the matter.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK