The story from the briefing room in Government House Umuahia was not one of a reluctant government withholding what is due, but rather one of a responsible administration caught in a strange and frustrating web of administrative opacity. At the heart of the industrial action declared by the state chapter of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria is a curious demand for a leave allowance that the government’s financial records already account for under a different name.
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Ikechukwu Uwanna SAN, laid out the state’s position with the precision of a lawyer who has done his homework. He explained that when JUSUN presented their request for payment of leave allowance, the Office of the Accountant General did what any prudent custodian of public funds would do. They requested the details. They asked the union to confirm that this specific benefit had not already been earned and paid. The response from the union leadership has been silence, a refusal to provide the very evidence that would unlock the treasury within forty eight hours.
The government discovered something significant upon examining the payroll structure. The consolidated salary paid to judiciary workers already contains a component explicitly labeled “Leave Bonus.” In the world of public service accounting, a consolidated salary is precisely that: a consolidation of all emoluments into a single, comprehensive structure. To ask for a separate Leave Allowance on top of a Leave Bonus already baked into the monthly paycheck is to ask the state to pay the same benefit twice. Barr. Uwanna noted the national context, pointing out that the Federal Government does not pay a separate leave allowance to JUSUN members because of this consolidated scheme, nor do medical doctors in the federal service receive such separate treatment. The Abia State Government, under Governor Alex Otti, is not asking for a favour. It is asking for a simple, verifiable document. The promise is clear and unambiguous: if JUSUN provides evidence that their salary slip lacks a Leave Bonus component, the payment will be made within two days. It is a challenge to transparency that the union has so far declined to accept.
Beneath the surface of the leave allowance dispute lies a more troubling and persistent obstruction: the refusal of JUSUN members to submit to a staff verification exercise. The Attorney General pointed to a timeline that raises more than a few eyebrows. Every other civil servant in Abia State has been verified since Governor Otti took office, a necessary step to clean the payroll of ghost workers and ensure those with questionable credentials do not drain resources meant for genuine employees. The judiciary was given special consideration, allowed to delay their verification due to the principle of judicial independence. After careful engagement, a date was finally set for that process to begin. That date was March 15. It was the very same day JUSUN downed tools and walked out.
The coincidence is stark and the consequences are not abstract. They are borne by the elderly and retired. Because the judiciary staff refuses verification, pensioners who spent their careers in service to the courts cannot be paid. The system cannot validate their transition from active service to retirement if the active service list itself remains unverified. Barr. Uwanna’s appeal was directed at the humanity of the union leaders, imploring them not to make the pensioners suffer for a standoff rooted in a refusal to provide documentation.
The Accountant General, Deaconess Njum Onyemanam, added the final, crucial layer of clarity. The Office of the Accountant General does not control the judiciary payroll. The judiciary manages its own payroll. The state government’s role is to release funds based on the documentation and payment vouchers submitted by the judiciary itself. It is a legal and financial process, not a political whim. The state has a sterling record of paying workers on or before the 28th of every month, a testament to Governor Otti’s commitment to welfare. But no Accountant General can legally disburse public funds against a demand that lacks supporting evidence or against a payroll that remains unverified.
The Abia State Government’s defence is not one of defiance but of due diligence. It is a government saying to its judiciary workers: we have paid your leave bonus in your monthly consolidated salary, but if you can prove otherwise, we will correct it instantly. It is a government saying: we want to pay your pensioners, but you must first let us know who is real and who is a ghost. The ball, by all accounts presented in that briefing, remains firmly in the court of the Judiciary Staff Union.