Southwest Attorneys-General Call for Increment of Salary of Judges

Abeokuta: Sina ODUNTAN

Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, Chief Justice of Nigeria.

THE ATTORNEYS-GENERAL of South West States, Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo, have called for the upward review of salaries of judges.

They made this call during a virtual interracive session with Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation, Attorneys-General of states and Chief Judges.

In a statement on behalf of the Attorneys-General of South West States and made available to thedispatch, Olawale Fapohunda, the Honourable Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Ekiti State, said they are not against the independence of the Judiciary.

“We have not discussed in depth the matter of Executive Order 10 issued by Mr. President particularly as it concerns judicial autonomy. None of our states are against judicial autonomy. Indeed in our view the ideal of judicial independence rests squarely on the ability of the judiciary to fend for itself. There is however a need to achieve clarity on the meaning of judicial autonomy.”

Fapohunda lamented that the salaries of judges is small and that though salaries and allowances of political officeholders have been reviewed four times, that of the Judiciary was reviewed just twice.

“There appears to be a misconception that judiciary autonomy is about physical infrastructure - state of the art courtrooms, comfortable cars and related matters. These are important however any discussion of judicial autonomy must necessarily include a reference to judicial salaries. 

"This is as important as the infrastructure. A situation where a judge works in a state of the art courtroom, drives a comfortable official car, lives in a comfortable official house but has to survive on a poor salary makes nonsense of the concept of judicial autonomy. 

"Indeed between May 1999 and March 2011, the Federal Government of Nigeria reviewed the salaries and allowances of Public Servants and Political office holders on four occasions specifically in 2000, 2005, 2007 and 2011. However, the salaries of judicial officers were only reviewed twice during the same period. As a result judicial officers have been on the same salary structure for more than 10 years.”

They, therefore, called for the upward review of the salary of judges: “While the South West Attorneys-General recognize the enormity of the economic challenges facing the nation, there is now a compelling need to upwardly review judicial salaries. It is our view that judicial salaries must be set at a comparatively high public service level in order to remove both the temptation to corruption and public contemplation of the possibility of such temptation.”