Nationwide Magistrates' Strike Looms In Nigeria

Only an immediate resolution of the ongoing industrial dispute between the Nasarawa State Government and magistrates in the state would avert a nationwide magistrates’ strike being contemplated by Magistrates Association of Nigeria (MAN).

Already, magistrates in Nasarawa State had continued the industrial action they embarked upon following the dispute and had been joined in solidarity by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, Nasarawa State chapter.
Dispute between the government and the magistrates was reported to have emanated from the appointment by Nasarawa State Government of Bala Rabo Ayaga and Mohammed Tiga as deputy registrars from outside the judiciary when there were qualified people in the service.

The magistrates were said to have issued a 21-day ultimatum to government demanding a reversal of the appointment, a demand government allegedly turned down.
But speaking to newsmen yesterday in Awka, Anambra State, the National President of MAN, Chief Magistrate Nkiruka Franklin Iguh, said the association was discussing the possibility of embarking on a nationwide strike in solidarity with its members in Nasarawa State.

Iguh further said MAN was also considering legal action against the state government, adding: “The Federal Republic of Nigeria Scheme for use in the civil service at Page 224, Paragraphs 3:6(1) provides for entrance into the post of a deputy chief registrar and it is a chief magistrate who has spent at least four years in the grade that is competent to occupy that position.
“The Judiciary Service Commission of Nasarawa State did not give due regards to this because I am aware that they have more than eight chief magistrates in that state that are very much qualified.”
The association’s national president explained that one of the appointees, Tiga, had only been nine years in the bar, adding that the people appointed by government were at various times offered positions as magistrates but they turned it down.

Iguh, however, advised the Nasarawa State Government to revert the controversial appointments in the interest of effective dispensation of justice, warning that the nationwide strike, if allowed to take effect, would adversely affect the masses “who need the courts for redress and legal protection.”