House of Representatives yesterday demanded that government should immediately review the salaries of judges and other judiciary workers in the country.
The House also called for an increase of the statutory allocation to the judiciary on the first line charge.
To this end, the Green Chamber enjoined the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to immediately review the remuneration of judicial officers in line with the present economic realities.
The lawmakers, however, mandated the House Committee on Judiciary to work towards an amendment of the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Officeholder (Salary and Allowances) Act by removing the remunerations of judicial officers from that of political and public officeholders as well as ensure compliance with the aforementioned resolutions.
The chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary, Hon Luke Onofiok Akpan, in a motion, said the salary of judicial officers was last reviewed by RMAFC in 2007 when the official exchange rate was N124 to $1 and the minimum wage was N5,000.
He said the House was aware that the budget for the judiciary had remained at N110 billion since 2017, while the total budget size had continued to grow, leading to gross underfunding and neglect of the judiciary over the years, which have affected productivity, increased frustration and deflated the morale of judicial officers and staff members.
Onofiok said 13 years after the salary review of judicial officers, the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), who is the most senior judicial officer in the country, earns N279,497 monthly, the justices of the Supreme Court and the President of the Court of Appeal earn N206,425 monthly; justices of the Court of Appeal earn N206,425 monthly, while judges of the Federal High Court, National Industrial Court, FCT High Court, state High Courts, FCT Sharia Court of Appeal, FCT Customary Court of Appeal, Khadis of state Sharia Courts of Appeal and state Customary Courts of Appeal all earn N1.8 million each as their annual salary.