In recent time, calls for upward review of salaries and allowances of Judges of States and Federal High Courts, Justices of the Court of Appeal as well as the apex court by stakeholders in the nation’s judiciary have become louder, with available information, revealing that salaries of Judges and Justices of the superior courts have been static for about 15 years, and the need, according to many, for an upward review, is there for all to see.
After a careful analysis on the take-home pay of judges, Ahuraka Isah, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) said, the salaries and purchasing power of Judges in the country and their counterparts in other countries are wide apart, yet Nigerian jurists, have remained committed to their roles in strengthening the country’s democracy.
The National Judicial Council (NJC), created by Section 153 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, (as amended) is the body responsible for the collection, control and disbursement of all money,
capital and recurrent for the judiciary. The Council is also enabled by law to handle the recurrent budget for the state judicial officers (High Court of Justice, Sharia Court of Appeal in respect of their consolidated salaries, allowances and overhead cost).
Amid the calls for the upward review of judiciary’s budget, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), while speaking at a recent Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Justice Sector Summit 2022 in Abuja, challenged the judiciary, to be transparent and accountable in the spending of allocated funds, in its annual budgets.
The Chief Law Officer of the country told participants at the summit that, the federal government was not in a position to know whether the judiciary’s budget allocation was inadequate, due to the lack of transparency that allegedly characterises the financial records of the judiciary.
The AGF challenge to the judiciary in the area of transparency was the first time the judiciary would be openly confronted by a top member of the executive arm of government about the alleged age-long secrecy of its budgets.
Malami, who rhetorically asked why the N104 billion provided for the judiciary in the 2021 budget was insufficient, said the executive was not in a position to answer “because their (judiciary’s) books are not open.” Speaking on the theme “Devising practical solutions towards improved performance, enhanced accountability and independence in the justice sector”, which was the focus of the Summit, the Minister called out the judiciary, headed by Justice Ibrahim Muhammad Tanko on how it has been applying its funds.
The minister noted that until the three arms of government, the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary allow, “the operation of an open government partnership arrangement, we can never be in a position to identify to what extent the budgetary provision made, is inadequate.”
It is worth mentioning however that the current administration, headed by President Muhammadu Buhari had prioritised the financial independence of the judiciary by issuing the Executive Order No 10 2020.
A key provision of the said Executive Order which seeks to enforce financial autonomy of the legislature and judiciary of the states, is the power given to the Accountant-General of the Federation to deduct from the allocations due to a state from the Federation Account, any sums appropriated for the legislature or judiciary of that state which the state fails to release to its legislature or judiciary as the case may be and to pay the funds directly to the state’s legislature or judiciary concerned.
Knocks
Senior lawyers found it worrying that judiciary as the last hope of the common man, is itself being dragged for alleged lack of transparency and accountability.
Yusuf Olaolu Ali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said it was hard to believe that the budget details of the judiciary aren’t contained in the appropriation bill.
Constitutional lawyer, Mr. Kayode Ajulo wanted the accusers of judiciary to be specific with their allegations, to know who is doing what, illegally.
“I may not have the privileged information that the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation had before making that accusation, but it’s patent to know that the three arms of government that is the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary operate the same prescribed financial and accounting system. Except we’re being told that the Judiciary has deviated from the know financial and accountability templates of the Government” he noted, adding that “It is also imperative to make the distinction between our Judges and those administrators, working in our judiciary.”
Explaining the dichotomy, Ajulo said, “The Judges are the Judicial Officers as defined by the Constitution and they are different from administrative officers handling accounting issues in the system. It is interesting to know that is our financial system, the Chief Justice of Nigeria is not even the chief accounting officer of the Supreme Court, he is at most head of court, while the Chief Registrar, is the accounting officer, aided by other civil servants. The allegation of lack of transparency in budgetary spending against the Judiciary should be clearly distinguished and properly situated. Our Judicial Officers, Judges’s function is captured in their Oaths of Office, which mainly, is on the dispensation of justice.”
However, he is for justice taking its course if anyone is found guilty.
“However, if the allegation is against the two categories of officers in the Judiciary, what to be done is instructive as there is no issue to be raised once infraction is established. That said, it should be restated that our law is no respecter of anyone provided the prescribed procedures and legislations are followed as there’s less or no immunity from prosecution, for anyone in Nigeria” he concluded.
Anti-corruption activist, Hamzat Lawal, said the judiciary is meant to ensure fiscal transparency and accountability and wondered why it would not open its books for public scrutiny.
Lawal who founded Follow the Money, a fiscal accountability platform, led a campaign to compel the National Assembly to disclose its budget details. He noted that for “the judiciary to uphold the democratic tenet of rule of law, it must ensure that its budget breakdowns are available for public auditing.”
Our spending details with AuGF, AcGF.
A senior operative of the Council who spoke to Nigerian Tribune anonymously because he was not authorised to speak on the raging controversy, disputed the minister’s claim, pointing out that the yearly details of judiciary’s spending are domiciled with the Auditor General of the Federation and Accountant General of the Federation. Though the source could not lay his hands on the latest publications from the two offices, he was certain that a simple enquiry at the said offices would turn up the latest versions of their reports on the full analyses of the Council’s spending.
While also not certain of the year in circulation, the source said at least the financial publications for 2019 from the two institutions of government, should be available in any serious library, including those of institutions, leveling the allegations of corruptibility against the Council.
The source also explained that seconded officials of the Auditor General’s office are domiciled in the Council, courts and other agencies of the Judiciary, wondering if the perceived coordinated attacks against the Council were not just to prepare ground for alleged take-over the Judiciary by the Executive arm through a controversial committee, earlier designed to replace the NJC.
The proposed committee, primed to have the CJN as just a member, was designed to be the new coordinating body for the judiciary. However, the proposal failed to sail at the National Assembly, with the decision of the joint and-hoc committee on constitution review, to go with the recommendation of the consultants retaining NJC, as a child of necessity.
On the secrecy of budget passage, the source said it is usually the practice with the federal lawmakers who handle appropriation of the Judiciary, to call for executive sessions whenever the accounting officers of the arm of government are with them, to defend their budgetary proposals, which obviously includes the central budget of the judiciary, usually defended by the Council Secretary, Ahmed Gambo Saleh.
Many stakeholders are however of the opinion that the judiciary should, by itself, throw its books open and do things transparently, for the sake of the system and its integrity, at least to avoid the suggestion of a senior lawyer, Monday Ubani, that security agents should be called in, if truly the financial books of the council and other affiliates, are hidden from statutory scrutiny.
