THE UNTOLD STORY OF WHAT LALONG IS DOING IN THE JUDICIARY AND OTHER SECTORS.

The Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Plateau state  Chrysanthus Ahmadu recently granted an interview to The Grassroots Watch and two other mediums where he clarified certain critical issues in the state. This interview is a most read because the issues raised and discussed are quite apt 

The excerpt:

The Grassroots Watch : Can our readers get to know you? 

Chrysanthus Twannmen Ahmadu is my name, I am the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Plateau State.

The Grassroots Watch : His Excellency, Governor Simon Bako Lalong is seen to be working under his  Slogan "Think Plateau, Act Plateau" As the Attorney General of Plateau State, can you enumerate some of Governor Lalong's achievements in the state judiciary and or the administration of justice in the state?

Let me first of all clarify that when it comes to the judiciary, it's a separate arm of government, the head of the judiciary is the Chief Judge, the chief administrative officer of the judiciary is the Chief Registrar. You know it is an independent arm of government, you know we are talking about autonomy, issues relating to judiciary will ordinarily be better addressed by the Chief Registrar who is the spokesperson for the judiciary, however, the office of the attorney general is the liaison between the judiciary and the executive. So I would not pretend that my office is not involved in matters of judiciary.

You know that the judiciary in Plateau State has its fair share of challenges just like other arms of government, its not rosy. The administration of Governor Lalong has tried  to first of all ensure that appropriate enabling laws are put into place, because at the end of the day we are talking about  maintenance of law and order. The governor is the chief security officer of the state, so the judiciary, legislative and executive all work in sync  to be able to deliver on the mandate of governance.

In terms of laws, the state has done well, since my assumption of office in the area of Law Making, we have been doing well, we have the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, The Penal Code  Law of Plateau State, and there is a  movement  towards Alternative Dispute Resolution because the  traditional mode of dispute resolution which  is litigations in count is no longer popular, so the government is aware of that, and for that  reason the  government set up the  multi door court house, the multi door court house is suppose to be the arena for alternative dispute resolution, talk of arbitration , mediation, reconciliation council of the multi door house, the judiciary gave us  structure which we have remodeled for the eventual takeoff of the court.Practically the structure is completed except for few minor finishing's. 

So the governor wants to take Plateau into the league of state where ADR is the in thing. The governors' visions is to make Plateau State a hub for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) so with the coming on stream of the multi door court house litigans will not have to spend 10 years trying their disputes in court  because  the ADR Mechanism is simply accessible, less- expensive and is reconciliatory  and the purpose is actually to heal parties, restore parties confidence in each other and reconcile them, so it is the trend all over the world.

So we want to de-emphasize litigations, it will also reduce the work load of the court, because if you go to places where it is already happening very well like Lagos and Abuja, they get rid of many cases through this ADR mechanism, so it saves the time of the litigants, it saves the time of the courts and it makes businesses happy because business disputes  are quickly resolved, so that is  in one area, in the other area am sure you have noticed the new high court complex is at the advanced stage of completion and this is in spite  of the paucity of funds in the state. So its takes a lot of sacrifices for that level of achievement to be attained, and focus. So it is hoped that very soon that structure will be completed if funds are available. When I say if funds are available it doesn't mean we are resting on our oars, we are working  very hard  to stimulate the IGR of the state so that at  least we will  have an appreciable level of  funding to enable us undertake the completion of this critical projects  in the state. Though the governor would have  done more but within   the level of available resources, I would say the governor in the Nigerian   parlance, the governor  has tried, as Nigerians would say the governor has done quite appreciable, but we hope to do even more.  

The Grassroots Watch: There has been this outcry drawing the governors attention to the dilapidated state of most of the lower counts in Plateau, and the issue of manpower in the state judiciary which came about as a result of retirements, deaths etc. what is the governor doing about this?

Now two things are involved here, we are talking about infrastructure and manpower. As it relates infrastructure, major projects the government wants to deliver  on in order of priority is the high court complex, its intention is to cascade the process down, we know the state of the courts, but you must agree  with me that the state of dilapidation did not occur overnight, the previous administrations in the state which had more resources than this government, if they had put in even a little  effort the state would have been different, so we are talking about the state of near-collapse of infrastructure in the midst of vey pressing  needs in the state. We have security challenges that require a lot of funding  by the state government, because the federal government have  not  been forth coming with funding  so the states are saddled with enormous responsibilities, so we must understand the limitations of the state in terms of deliverables, but even at that the intention of this government is to finish with  this high  count complex then start doing the local government courts in faces. 

Now, when I came in there was this example of, I think it was Wase Local Government that rehabilitated a Magistrate court building, Langtang Local Government rehabilitated a high court building, while the state will do it, it will take time because of constrain of resources. Certainly the state will get to do it but it will take time because the resources have to be available before those things are addressed.

We are aware of the  issue of manpower shortage but it cuts across all level of government, even in the executive arm, you  would recall that there was an exercise where employment was to be carried out but certain  factors came to disrupt the exercise. 

First was Covid-19, and the dwindling resources and there was no  point recruiting more staff you cannot pay. So the revenue profile of the state  had gone down on account of the fall  in   accruable revenue from the federation account and IGR, though we are not doing badly in the IGR but we thought we could do better, we are  working towards that but the COVID-19 impacted businesses  badly and IGR is dependent on the taxes,  levies and some of which come from businesses and so when the businesses are not doing well you do not go on tax enforcement, so it has impacted negatively  on the government  revenue, but it is  still the intention of this  government  to include the exercise once we have some improvement  on revenue which I  said  we are  working very hard on, as am talking   to you revenue consultants are on ground, there has been a lot,  revenue council has been constituted, new board  for the state  Internal Revenue  Service  has been constituted, we are  really rearing to go, and with increased revenue,  this is a government that has a  high sense of responsibility and a hunger to achieve. So once the revenues are there we will be able to do a lot more.

 For the judiciary, it is unfortunate that it has been impacted but the situation you mentioned about some courts being closed down  on account of manpower shortage it  has not  been brought to my attention. You would agree that if that is the case then it is an emergency situation that should be quickly addressed but I will endeavor to find out from  the chief registrar if that is indeed the case so that we can see what we can do or what interim measures can be put  in place to get these courts  back functioning.

So, be assured that this government  is one that would address issues  of judiciary adequately. We are committed to that.

 The Grassroots Watch : The decentralization of payment of local government salaries has turn out to be a problem where salaries are not paid for over 3 months and  accusing fingers  are still pointed at mr governor. What is your take on this?

It should be clear to all that inherent in the concept of autonomy is independence, so  let's agree on the premise that the local governments are independent, and are supposed to manage their own affairs. They have their own funds  which comes directly into their accounts, nobody tempers with their funds. Now, if they are unable to pay, the only reason will be that the funds are inadequate, so the idea of centralized payment which was being done in the state itself was an arbitration but it was necessitated by the fact that there was no uniformity in payments of local government workers, some local governments were doing well in payment  of salaries while others were not. It was decided to centralize this  process so that the state comes  in sometimes  to intervene to ensure they are given soft loan to be able to make those payments, so there was uniformity. Now, with the agitation by Local Government workers who went on strike insisted on the state government paying them the new  minimum wage. The local government chairmen made  it clear that the local government could not afford to pay the new minimum wage of N30,000 reason being that what was accruing to the local government from the federation account would not be sufficient and secondly because the IGR in the local government is nearly non-existent, so if you are depending on revenues from the federation   account to fund local governments, if you are the owner of a business, you look at your man power, you look at your overhead cost, that will determine whether your carrying capacity of the staff you have to retain. looking at it from that angle, the chairmen were faced with difficult choices, as an owner of a business if you are not able to pay, you are left with the choice of down-sizing or you have the choice of negotiating with the workers on how much you can pay, but the local government chairmen were virtually blackmailed into accepting 30,000 minimum wage. In most states, yes the federal government made the pronouncement on minimum wage but you look at your ability to pay. Why would you agree to pay what you do not have the capacity to pay? So for me that is where the chairmen went wrong, they should have stood their grounds, mark you, the chairmen could pay the old salaries, the chairmen could pay the old salary with some increment to a certain extent but there is a certain threshold which they can carry but beyond that they made it clear, the unionists were adamant and insisted on having their way and because it has become a security issue in the state. I think they were eager to conclude with and agree with the workers, am sure within them the chairmen knew that they will not be able to pay. So, it is an unfortunate situation, the ordinary man does not care who state or local government is. Any government should be concerned about what is happening in the local government. So we are actually very concerned about what is happening in the states, in the same score the states should be concerned about what is happening in the local government. So we are actually very concerned but the situation where the local governments were trying to push their responsibility to the state was one we could not accept. It was becoming a situation of blackmail where the governor was being called names for doing what was actually in the interest of the workers, So, the state executive council, it wasn’t even the governor but the highest policy making body in the state that decided that, look the local governments are autonomous, why are we taking panadol for another person’s headache? Let’s leave them with their responsibilities, let them go and sort themselves out since the state government is being blackmailed. There is no name the governor was not called. The governor was called a thief, the one that is stealing local government funds and all that, which is not true.

The only thing true in terms of the relationship between local government and state government when it comes to funds is because there are some statutory bodies that are serving the local governments, I’ll give you an example SUBEB, it manages teachers for the primary schools, now SUBEB was set up to serve the local government, So under the law the state government is responsible for counterpart funding with the federal government to take care of infrastructure. The local governments are responsible for payment of teacher’s salaries and their other staff, that is the arrangement under the law, so you look at operation RAINBOW, it’s the local governments that make up the state, when you are talking about security and payment of manpower of operation RAINBOW, they are serving the local governments, so under the law the local governments contribute a percentage, two percent or so, for the maintenance of operation RAINBOW, the same thing with the plateau state university BOKKOS, it is jointly owned by the state and local government, like I said the local governments make the state, so it is supposed to be jointly financed by them and a percentage of their revenue from FAAC goes into maintenance of PLASU. So, if local governments have to make those commitments are those funds going into the governor’s pocket? They are not. Local government service commission serves the local governments, so if a percentage of the local government funds is to finance administrative and overhead of local government service commission is it the governor that is taking the money? So, I think they were being uncharitable, and I think the situation became politicized. So, the state government has no choice but to decide that this centralized payment arrangement should be dissolved, let the local governments own up to their responsibilities. So, the governor is a listening governor, if they have any problems they can come back to the governor for discussions, the chairmen can come back to discuss and I hope the workers would have learned their lessons, that it is not everybody who is in government that is a rouge or has ill intentions. It is not everybody and the governor is a very good example, he is not somebody that will take away anybody’s money for whatever reason. Whatever contributions the local governments are supposed to make to their joint partnerships is statutory. It is a law made up by the House of Assembly and the House of Assembly is made up by representative of the people. So, it is not the fault of any governor, some of these laws preceded this administration. For instance, the traditional institution, traditional councils get 5 percent of what is due to every local government per month. Is that the making of the governor?

If the local governments are unable to pay then we should be talking about how to sour up the revenues of the local governments, but I have good news, the good news is that there are a lot of revenues that the local governments are not collecting, by the consolidated revenue law of the state, we are attempting a coordinated collection by the internal revenue service. Talk about tenement rent, for instance, how much do the local governments collect? They may collect 500 for tenement rent but the basis for charging tenement rent is that you do evaluation, how many local governments have valuation department? And even if they do, how many of them do valuations? You do valuation before you fix what is called tenement rent. So these rents were virtually not being collected, radio, tv, hence they were not being collected, so what the harmonized revenue law has done is to empower the service to collect these revenues on behalf of the state and local governments so that at the end of the month the proportion due to the ocal governments would now be remitted to them. Now, you won’t hear of tenement rent again because we have consolidated it into land use charge, under land use charge, you have the tenement rate component and the land use charge component. The land use charge ordinarily belongs to the state because, if you look at the right of occupancy or C of O you will see a clause where you are supposed to make payment on the first day of January every year to the state. So tenement rate is a rate on occupation, so if you are living in a house, you are suppose to pay tenement rate to the local government, so what we have done which has worked in other states is to bring in the land use charge which marries tenement rate and land use charge and ground rent, so evaluation will be done, if you have a property in shendam GRA for instance, it will be valued and it is a percentage of it that will now be charged as land use charge, and this will now be shared between the state and the local government. It is going  to make a big difference if we are faithful in its implementation and if the local governments cooperate with us, it is going to improve the collectable revenue of the local governments,

 so perhaps we will get to a stage where this will be history but back to the question of nonpayment of local government salaries. I will tell you it is a practical matter. Is either you have the money to pay or you don’t have. Now if you don’t have what do you do? Most states, I recall when 18,000 minimum wage law was passed at the national assembly and assented to by the president, many states, I know Oyo State was the first to sit with its workers to say, look, this is reality, we cannot pay 18,000 minimum wage but we can negotiate, whatever we agree on now will be able to pay. Oyo State started with 12,000. So instead of 18,000 the workers agreed that rather than laying off our colleagues, it’s a sacrifice now, because they were confronted with the option of some people being laid off for the state government to be able to pay 18,000 or for them to agree on something reasonable but within the capacity of the state to pay and they agreed on 12,000. Many States did that, so even the local governments were not paying 18,000 minimum wage, they were paying a percentage based on negotiation, so what has changed? The revenue profile has not gone up for you to say it must be 30,000 , so what was the basis on insistence by the local government .Thus 30,000 must be paid because the state has agreed to pay 30,000 to its workers, there was no reasonable bases for it. I think they were mislead and the only solution is for them to retrace their steps, sit down with their managements and agree on what is payable. So it is either they negotiate down-wards so that the local government will be able to pay or local governments will do a staff audit and reduce the staff strength so that they will be able to pay the 30,000 to chose who are left. I don’t want to go into the issue of productivity or non-productivity at the local government level that is not within my purview. 

The chairmen can talk for themselves, but I think it is indecent for a worker to be receiving payment for services not rendered or delivered, which is the story you find in most of the local governments. Hardly will you find much happening within the local government, their workers live in the city, when month ends then they will go and collect their salaries, so maybe this is the time where hard decisions will be taken. A local government chairman will review his staff list, who are those coming to work and who are those not coming to work? Those not coming should be layed off. Perhaps they will have a manageable size left that they can pay. So as far as I am concerned these are the solutions and if they come back to us that is the advice we will give. There is no magic that can be done by anybody it is a very practical situation. I gave an example of a businessman, which businessman can run a business that cannot pay for itself?