“RESUME IF YOU WANT US TO HEAR YOU”- COURT OF APPEAL TELL ASUU

I am not really in the business of doing breaking news. This is because, coming online and saying things without full facts can be dangerous, especially with court cases. However, the Order of the Court of Appeal today, the 7^th day of October, 2022, has caused a lot of spark, and that is quite understandable.

First thing first, whenever a Court delivers a Ruling or Judgment in a matter before it, parties are bound to obey it. It doesn’t matter whether you like the Judgment or not, in fact, the very fact that it wasn’t in your favour is the more reason you should comply with the Order of the Court.

After the National Industrial Court had ordered ASUU to resume its academic activities pending the determination of the main matter, it was obvious to everyone that the Union was aggrieved by the decision, so an Appeal was definitely expected.

The breaking news going around is that the Court of Appeal today has ordered that the union obeys the Order of the lower court if it wants its Appeal to be heard by the Court. In other words, the Justices of the Court of Appeal are telling ASUU, “if you want us to listen to your Appeal at all, you have to first obey the Orders of our junior brothers”

Truth be told, I have not read the Ruling of the Court of Appeal, so I cannot give a thorough explanation like I did last time with the judgment of the National Industrial Court. As I said, complete facts are important in court cases. However, we can work with some assumptions.

One of the things you have to know about court proceedings is that once a judgment is given and you do not have intentions of obeying the order, you are to immediately file an Application to Stay the Execution of the Judgment/Ruling. This is usually done at the Court that delivered the Judgment in the first place. I must tell you the bitter truth here, most often than not, the Court does not grant this new Application. When the Application is refused by the Court that initially delivered the said Judgment, the next step is for the aggrieved party to quickly go to the Court of Appeal and file two Applications. One is an Application for Stay of Execution, and the other, is a Notice of Appeal.

The reason is because, without an “Order for Stay of Execution” the Court’s decision MUST be obeyed. A “Stay of Execution” is an order by the Court staying the execution, or should I say the compliance, with the initial Order that was made. In other words, the Court is giving a second Order that the first Order it earlier made, should be put on hold.

From the little facts available to this writer, after the National Industrial Court delivered its Ruling, ASUU ran to the Court of Appeal and filed the two Applications. Meaning, ASUU did not get an Order for stay of execution from the National Industrial Court. I am not even sure they filed the Application before the National Industrial Court, because had ASUU succeeded in getting a Stay of Execution from the National Industrial Court, I am sure the Court of Appeal would not have ordered them to comply with the said order to resume. I mean, you cannot comply with an Order that has been stayed.

Another thing to note is that, an Appeal does not serve as a Stay, and I am certain, that no court would encourage you to be in contempt of another Court. They are brothers for crying out loud. If you have not obtained a Stay of Execution from the lower Court, it is unlikely that the Justices of the Court of Appeal would watch you be in contempt of their younger brother.

The question to ask now is, what happened to the Application for Stay of Execution that ASUU had before the Court of Appeal. I believe the Court of Appeal dismissed it. They must have. For if they didn’t, how then did they order the Union to obey its younger brother’s Order. You might ask “why would the Court of Appeal dismiss it?”, well, because it has the power to. It is normal that after hearing the argument from both lawyers, the Court has the power to either grant or dismiss the Application.

Secondly, you have to know that the Justices did grant ASUU conditional leave to Appeal, i.e for ASUU to file its Notice of Appeal, they would have to show proof that they have complied with the orders of the lower court. This means that if in seven days time, ASUU comes with its Appeal, and does not attach proof of resumption (like pictures of classes on going or opening of the classes at barest minimum), the Appeal would be struck out and not be heard, and of course ASUU would be in contempt of two courts.

Another question to answer is, do you think the Federal Government would commence a Contempt of Court trial against ASUU should the union still be adamant in its resolve?

The Contempt of Court proceeding is different one altogether. Here the aggrieved party would go to Court and inform the Court that the erring party has failed or refused to obey Court order. This would lead the Court to invite the erring party to explain why he/she should not be thrown to prisons for its refusal to obey Court order. If it is proven that the erring party has intentionally disobeyed the Court, the Court would have no choice than to hold the erring party in contempt and sentence the party to a term imprisonment, most times pending when the erring party proves that it has complied with the said Order.

The second question is, who in particular would the contempt order be enforced against? ASUU is a Union/Association. All the Lecturers cannot be sent to jail. It probably would be the leaders of the Association, or the Vice-Chancellors of the said universities. Like I said in the previous post, strike the shepherd and the sheep would what?

And for those asking if ASUU can appeal to the Supreme Court, the answer is NO. the reason is because, the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As Amended) makes the Court of Appeal the final Court for all matters that come from the National Industrial Court of Nigeria. So yes, the Court of Appeal’s decision on any Labour matter is final and cannot be appealed against.