Judicial workers strike shuts down Supreme Court

Nigerian judicial workers last week shut down the Supreme Court in Abuja, in line with their threat to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike to press for financial autonomy for the judiciary. The move is in defiance of the last minute appeal by the Nigerian Bar Association to the workers to shelve the industrial action, which it said was ill-timed considering the Covid-19 constraints the Nigerian courts had been battling with. The Premium Times reports that staff at other two key judicial institutions – the National Judicial Council and the Federal Judicial Service Commission – which share the same premises with the Supreme Court are also affected. Workers of both institutions are part of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, the umbrella body of all judiciary workers at all levels in the nation, and are also bound by the strike declared by the union.