The National Assembly in Nigeria has requested for better welfare packages for Judicial Officers.
The request was made on Friday in Abuja, the nation’s capital during the 2023 budget defence session by the Executive Secretary of the National Judicial Council (NJC) Mr Ahmed Gambo Saleh, on behalf of the Judiciary.
The Chairman of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, who made the request, also confirmed an increase of the budgetary allocation for the judiciary from N120 billion to N150 billion.
He, however, expressed concern, that the increment was not enough to cater for the welfare of various stakeholders in the arm of government.
“We stand to consider the content of the leaked memo from the Justices of the Supreme Court as a wake-up call or clarion call to comprehensively address the welfare issues and well-being of Judges, Judicial Officers and staff of the Judiciary, as well as judicial apparatus and infrastructure of Courts.
“Otherwise, poor working conditions and lack of the requisite welfare will affect the overall performance of the Nigerian Judiciary.
“Wth the N150 billion budget proposal for 2023 fiscal year against N120billion in the 2022 fiscal year, it is not yet Uhuru for the judiciary because the judiciary still needs much more than that to operate and be able to address adequately, the welfare of our judicial officers and staff of the judiciary”.
Mr Ahmed Saleh lamented that though the NJC has been able to assess 80 percent of 2022 budget , the inflation rate in the county had adverse effects on the budget performance of the Judicial Council in the country.
“Although there is an increase of N30 billion in the budget compared to last year’s budget of N120 billion, but in the real sense of it there is no serious increase in the budget considering the level of inflation in the country.
“The appropriation for the judiciary in this subsisting fiscal year is N120 billion. It is gratifying that out of this sum we are so far able to assess 80 per cent of the fund
“That notwithstanding, the current economic situation has adversely affected our budget implementation and performance because the subsisting budget was passed at a benchmark of N580 to a dollar as against over N700 it is now,” he explained.
According to the Executive Secretary, if the judiciary must achieve milestones, there has to be an additional provision of over 20% of the votes.
PIAK
