Members of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) on Tuesday stormed the National Assembly Gate at the Three Arms Zone, Abuja to protest non-implementation of the financial autonomy for the judiciary.
A video of the protest circulated on social media.
In the video, the workers, who bore placards with various inscriptions and chanted solidarity songs, called on the authorities to meet their demands or they would be compelled to shut down the state assemblies.
President of PASAN, Mohammed Usman could be heard in the video urging the National Assembly to look into the matter.
He vowed that the union would explore all legal means to ensure its demands were met.
“Enough is enough! When there is no legislation, there is no country. They want to deny the independence of the legislature, we will not allow that. If they continue to deny us financial autonomy, we will use everything in our arsenal to fight them.
“We are after the governors, we are after the implementation committee that the needful must be done.
“In the next six days, if the implementation is not done, we will shut down the whole 36 states assemblies including the National Assembly,” Usman said.
It was learnt that the PASAN leadership submitted letters containing their demands to the leadership of both the House of Representatives and the Senate during the protest.
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The letter jointed signed by PASAN President and General Secretary, Comrade Mohammed Usman and Comrade Ikechukwu respectively, “Recall that His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Constitution Fourth Alteration Bill in June 2018 which among other things granted financial autonomy to all State Houses of Assembly in Nigeria and subsequently issued Executive Order 10 to ensure implementation.
“The Union considers these actions as great strides toward embedding democratic principle of separation of powers which in turn guarantees positive progressive, effective and efficient checks and balances especially at the state level where Executives have continually arm-twisted the Legislature into total submission thereby negating the essence of separation of powers in a democracy.
“It is therefore needful to see that for there to be a robust legislature at the state level, the implementation of the legislative financial autonomy is pertinent.
“It is in consideration of the foregoing that PASAN wishes to express her unreserved disgust and dismayed with the actions of some Nigerians and institutions particularly the Nigeria Governors Forum for aiming to not only discredit, but to exterminate this democratic prerequisite through frustrating its implementation.
“The Union has been magnanimous with the virtue of patience by allowing for ample time so that the Federal Government through His Excellency’s implementation committee on financial autonomy for state judiciary and legislature would ensure the implementation of the letters of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for over two years now.
“Our members have run out of patience and have resolved to forthwith put an end to condoning further delays to the implementation of the financial autonomy for states Houses of Assembly which in itself is a glaring breach of the Nigerian Constitution.
“As the Union’s motto reads, “Service for Democracy”, the union shall remain committed to serving the nation’s democracy. But the continuous non-implementation of Financial Autonomy at the state level is a huge obstacle before the wheel of democracy and the principle of separation of powers which in turn frustrates our devoted service.
“Consequent upon the foregoing, the union hereby demand for full implementation of the letters of our constitution as provided in section 121 (3) of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria (as amended).
“Failure to meet the above demand, the union will have no other option than to direct all its members nationwide to embark on indefinite strike action. By implication, the nationwide strike action shall see the following institutions shut down.”