- “It hardly helps the interests of the administration of justice if judges’ wages are undiminishable while those of their staff are non-existent.” – Odinkalu
• President Tinubu approves N37.2 billion for construction of new Abuja Division building, Appeal Court President considers closing some divisions over operational costs
• As President Industrial Court President Proposes 4-Year Review of Judicial Officers’ Salaries
At a one-day public hearing on the advancement of the welfare of the judiciary and the need to rescue a starving judiciary, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN on Monday expressed deep concern over the neglect in the remuneration of judicial officers for close to 17 years, a situation he said is opposed to any meaningful judicial reform.
However. law teacher, rights advocate and ex-Chair, National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu observed that “It hardly helps the interests of the administration of justice if judges’ wages are undiminishable while those of their staff are non-existent. Far from guaranteeing more efficient delivery of justice, therefore, Nigeria’s new judicial salaries may just achieve the opposite in the absence of a quick and equitable resolution of the negotiations concerning wages for workers generally, including judiciary staff.”
Prince Fagbemi who appeared with the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, before the Senate committee on Judiciary, human rights and legal matters for the commencement of hearing on a bill for an Act, to prescribe the salaries and allowance, and fringe benefits of judicial office holders in Nigeria and related matter bill 2024 had pointed out that while between May 1999 and March 2011, the Federal Government reviewed the salaries and allowances of Public Servants and Political office holders on four occasions, specifically in 2000, 2005, 2007 and 2011 and New regimes of national minimum wage, were also put in place within the same period, the salaries of judicial officers were only reviewed twice during the same period.
But in an article titled: Judges and Political Mating Games, Odinlalu said: ” At the beginning of April, 2024, the National Assembly passed the Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances, etc) Bill. It took all of three weeks, having only been transmitted by the presidency on 19 March. The bill updates judicial salaries, last reviewed in 2008. In particular, it will become effective from 1 January 2024, which ‘implies that if signed into law, the new rates of emoluments for judicial officers will be deemed to have become payable from January 1, in which case arrears will have to be paid.’
“The bill guarantees a basic annual salary of N36.84 million for high court judges and N51.16 million for the Chief Justice of Nigeria, achieving a notional increase of over 800% on current judicial remuneration. That is still way off the N84 million for high court judges and N120 million for the Chief Justice computed by Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osagie, a judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, in a self-help judgment issued on 4 May 2022. As a negotiating gambit, however, the judges may take the view that the judgment has served its purpose…
“It hardly helps the interests of the administration of justice if judges’ wages are undiminishable while those of their staff are non-existent. Far from guaranteeing more efficient delivery of justice, therefore, Nigeria’s new judicial salaries may just achieve the opposite in the absence of a quick and equitable resolution of the negotiations concerning wages for workers generally, including judiciary staff…”
And while President Bola Tinubu had in the course of last week approved the sum of N37.2 billion for the construction of a new building for the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, the President of the Court Hon. Justice Monica Dongban- Mensem announced that she might be shutting down some divisions of the court as operational cost has become a major challenge.
Her Lordship who revealed that salaries and welfare are not the only crucial issues lamented that low budgetary provisions are greatly hampering the court’s operations.
On the Court of Appeal question, Prof. Odinkalu in his article had this to say:
“Topping off a spectacular month of rich helpings from the political goodie-bag for Nigeria’s judiciary, the President during the week approved a whopping N37.2 billion for the construction of a new building for the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal.
“Contrary to the impression suggested by this decision, the court is not like another internally displaced person (IDP) in Abuja. In truth, it has one of the finer judicial edifices in the Federal Capital located also in the Three Arms Zone, just a shouting distance from the Presidency and the Supreme Court. This is why some people believe that the idea of an “Abuja Division” building is an excuse for executive generosity to the Court of Appeal hierarchy.
“Also working its way through the National Assembly at this time, the House of Representatives has passed a constitutional amendment bill to increase the number of Justices of Appeal by 67% from the current 90 to 150. It seeks to ‘increase the number of justices of the Court and provide for the appointment of a minimum of 6 justices in every Judicial division of the Court.'”
Meanwhile, the President of the Industrial Court, Hon. Justice Benedict Kanyip, has proposed a 4-year periodic review of salaries of judicial officers.
