Law Professor Asks Presidency To Employ Mediation To Broker Peace in JUSUN Strike. …..as ICMC launches 5-year strategic action plan

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Law Professor Asks Presidency To Employ Mediation To Broker Peace in JUSUN Strike.

…..as ICMC launches 5-year strategic action plan

 

Renowned Professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Mohammed Tabi’u, has asked the Presidency to employ conflict management strategies, especially mediation, to broker peace in the ongoing strike action by judiciary workers in the country.

Prof. Tabi’u maintained that the sole issue that led to the workers strike that has stagnated judicial activites in the country for over three weeks could be effectively resolved through dialogue and within one day.

The legal luminary spoke at the official launch of a five-year strategic action plan and public presentation of the Mediation House Project of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, ICMC, which held in Abuja..

Judiciary workers operating under the aegis of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) had on April 6, ordered members across the federation to shut all courts to press home their demand for implementation of financial autonomy for the judiciary.

The Union noted that President Muhammadu Buhari had on May 22, 2020, signed into law, an Executive Order 10 that granted financial autonomy to both the legislature and the judiciary across the 36 states of the federation.

The Executive Order equally mandated the Accountant-General of the Federation to deduct from source, any amount due to state legislatures and judiciaries from the monthly allocation to each state, for states that refuse to comply with the Executive Order.

The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, earlier threw its weight behind JUSUN’s action, even as lawyers staged peaceful protests across the federation.

Meanwhile, fielding questions from journalists at the ICMC event in Abuja, Prof. Tabi’u, SAN, stressed that the protracted strike action which has lasted for over three weeks, amplified the need for governments at all levels to pay more attention to the development of other Aternative Dispute Resolution, ADR, processes, such as mediation.

He said: “This brings to our mind how important it is that we should improve and promote this area of dispensation of justice, which is mediation, different from litigation. This is in the sense that mediation is natural to us, especially in our African communities.

“It goes on all the time at the family and community level. It is something that all our people find convenient to participate in because it brings about reconciliation among people, it promoted peace and ensures that spirit in our African community where once there is difference, we want to come to a solution that everybody is happy with.

“You do not get that when you go to court. In court, at the end, the judge says Mr. A you are right and Madam B you are wrong and Madam B feels hurt.

“Mediation is very unique and important for striking institutions, just like in the present one involving JUSUN.

“What ICMC stands for is that issues should be resolved through dialogue and not through turning our back on each other. What it has been promoting for the last 20 years is that differences are bound to arise, but such differences should be settled amicably in a process that everybody goes away happy with the outcome”.

On his part, ICMC President, Dr. Agada John Elachi, said the organization had earlier offered to assist the Federal Government to mediate with the leadership of JUSUN.

“We have used informal channels the try to reach out to suggest that resolution of JUSUN strike could be achieved via mediation.

“The kind of mediation and conciliation we are suggesting is one that will have all the parties sitting down, speaking frankly to each other and agreeing on terms. Not one that one party imposed terms on the other”, he added.

He said the ICMC which was established in 1999 with a current membership strength of over 10, 000 professional Mediators and Conciliators, had developed in capacity and contributed to the advancement and acceptability of Mediation and other ADR processes in Nigeria.

In her own remark, the Registrar of ICMC Mrs Aishat Ado Abubakar pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Bill already passed by the National Assembly to give legal teeth to all activities of the organization.

The Registrar explained that mediation unlike litigation has the potential of attracting foreign investors to the country to boost her economy and create huge employment opportunities for the citizenry.


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