When the latest strike of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) started on December 1 2008 many assumed it would end within a matter of days or at most two weeks. The popular thinking was that the striking workers would call off their strike, if for no other reason, than to ensure that they received their December salaries.
Nothing of that sort happened however, as the nationwide strike limited only to all the high courts in the country lasted all through December 2008 without any sign of let-up.
At the national level, the Nigerian Bar Association appointed Femi Falana esq a well known activist and counsel to organised labour, and a few others to, on her behalf, mediate between the JUSUN and the Federal Government.
In the main, the workers were asking for an improvement in their take home pay as well as unified salary scheme. As the strike dragged on through December it was getting clear that the two sides were falling shy of reconciliation. While the workers appeared adamant on their demands the Federal Government was equally unyielding citing constitutional impediments to satisfying the workers’ demands.
Seeing the way things were going the leadership of the bar in Lagos State, mainly the chairman of the branches, Lagos Ikeja and Ikorodu became uncomfortable with the stand-off. Their distress was understandable. Lagos had the largest number of lawyers in the country, as well as the largest Judiciary.
Even by the middle of December, the strike had started squeezing the pockets of many Lagos lawyers as all the state courts remained closed down. Litigation lawyers were particularly hit as ordinarily elusive clients (when it comes to fee paying) became even more elusive.
The main job of finding a solution to the impasse in Lagos State eventually rested on Dave Ajetomobi, the chairman of NBA Ikeja. Ajetomobi sitting a top Ikeja branch was the most centrally placed of the chairmen, and the most accessible to both the workers and the state Government which also has its secretariat in Ikeja.
Enjoying the mandate of the other two leaders (Bola Baderinwa of Lagos branch and Tony Ibeh of Ikorodu branch), Ajetomobi first met with Supo Sasore S.A.N the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice informally in Abuja to discuss a way forward out of the strike.
Later he led a 2 man delegation on 6th January 2009 to have an hour long meeting with the Attorney-General and Lawal Pedro S.A.N, the Solicitor-General of the State on the issue.
At this meeting, Sasore and Pedro were unanimous on the point that the State Government would not discuss or negotiate or accept any demands of workers in the face of an on-going strike as doing that “well encourage other sectors, who may be feeling aggrieved to embark on strike actions to press home their demands.” The two top government officials however assured the bar mediator’s team that the Governor (Babatunde Fashola SAN) was favourably disposed to look into the workers’ demands.
On the 8th January 2009, the Ajetomobi team met with five leaders and representatives of the Lagos Judiciary Workers including Segun Omoboye secretary of the Lagos branch of JUSUN and Dele Ismail Adesina a senior staff. The mediator’s efforts at persuading the workers to go back to work as requested by the state government yielded fruit but the success did not come easy.
The representatives of the workers came to the meeting divided. While some wanted the strike to continue until JUSUN, the national body directed otherwise, others wanted the strike to be called off straight away and independently of JUSUN.
After long, hot and acrimonious arguments and debates between the two camps of the workers, the Ajetomobi team managed to persuade the two sides to a common ground, to wit, Lagos State Judiciary workers will go back to work, once there is documentary evidence to show that the state Government will indeed enter who meaningful discussions with them over their demands.
The workers insisted on documentary evidence because of their experience after the March 2007 strike which lasted a month. To end that strike, the State Government under Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Asiwaju of Lagos, had met with the general body of the workers and not just the leaders. At the end of the meeting, the government promised to give 6 buses to the workers as staff buses and ten thousand naira each per month, as “litigation allowance” however while the government released the buses (5) to the workers, no money was ever paid. When workers demanded for this, government bureaucrats demanded for documents to prove that the government promised to make such payments to workers. Unfortunately the workers could not produce any such documents.
While some of the workers’ representatives said it was not necessary to get the Fashola administration to write out its understanding with them, the other part insisted on it. After some reflection, the Ajetomobi team got round the problem-the NBA as mediator would write the Attorney General on the matter and to which letter the office of the Attorney would give a quick reply. The NBA’s letter and the A.G’s reply would serve sufficiently as documentary proof of the reality of the resolution of the strike crisis in Lagos State.
In the evening of 8th January 2009, the office of the Attorney-General received the letter from the NBA Ikeja branch. See Bar & Bench News ‘Exhibit 1’. On the second day, in the afternoon, the reply of the Attorney General came (see Bar & Bench News Exhibit 2) came to the NBA Ikeja secretariat. The workers became set to resume work, satisfied with the letter from the A.G to the chairman, NBA Ikeja.
Quite fortuitously too, that same day, news broke that the national leadership of the JUSUN had suspended the strike for 14 days. The coast then became very clear for the workers to return to their work. This they did, on Monday 12th January 2009.
It is now left to see what the Lagos State Government and the Judiciary workers would make of the truce brokered by the NBA on or before the 31st April 2009.
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