Lagos Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has asked the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), to call off its nationwide strike.
Fashola spoke at the commissioning of the Combined High Court and Magistrate Court House projects in Epe Local Government Area of Lagos, on January 7, 2015. The Governor made this announcement in the interest of the masses that rely on the judiciary for fair judgment, P.M. News reports.
Furthermore, the Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, who enumerated the impact of the nationwide strike, urged the federal government and JUSUN to resolve their issue in the best interest of the masses. He also added that the new Combined Court House was fully equipped with modern facilities to intensify justice delivery.
Talking about the upcoming election Fashola said that the ruling party should retain in the state. He also called on the audience to vote for someone with the needed experience in the governance of the state and not someone who would experiment with the state.
“This is the season of elections; this is the season when you have to choose your leaders; my tenure ends in a matter of days and elections are upon us,” he said, urging those who had not collected their Permanent Voter’s Cards, (PVCs), to do so immediately in preparation for the coming elections.
He said it would help them to make the right choices, saying that “as far as I am concerned, this is a matter of experience; it is not a matter of experiment. For me, when you look at both sides of the divide today, most of the ills that bedevil the nation today are caused by mismanagement by the Federal Government.”
Fashola mentioned such problems as lack of regular electricity and the insecurity across the country. In his opinion these matters were also a result of mismanagement by the same government.
“The only way you can change a government that you do not like legally is by the ballot box. What is upon us today is monumental and topical. If we all agree that the government is bad, this is the first time in the history of our nation that we will have the right and the opportunity to change that government by ourselves,” he said.
Lagos Governor reminded that in the past, there were governments the people said were not good but that it was the military that changed them. Continuing his speech, he emphasized that democracy had come; therefore, the civil population had the opportunity to exercise their power to install government of their choice.
“This is our biggest opportunity to take the power in our hands and declare with pride that we changed this government. And we will change another government if we elect them and they do not do well; and that is when democracy would have come full circle because then power would be in the hands of the people.”
According to Fashola, the main issues of the Court House were to bring access to justice closer to the people, to reduce cost of obtaining justice and to bring public service employment to the grassroots.
Lagos state doctors have also recently expressed their dissatisfaction with the Lagos state government.
The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) doctors said that they were being owed over 3 months salary.
