National Telescope national telescope newspaper
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Tuesday called on the federal government to consider improvement in the remuneration of judicial officers.
Speaking Tuesday at a breakout session at the ongoing 2023 NBA holding in Abuja, panelists on the ‘Overview of NBA’s Memo to RMAFC on judicial remuneration’ said improvement should be considered because of the peculiar nature of their job.
The body said a review of judicial officers’ remuneration becomes necessary because they are poorly paid amid harsh economic realities of the country.
The body also said it wants the federal government to remove judges from the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and establish a separate body that will determine their remuneration.
Olawale Fapohunda, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ekiti state, who was the lead speaker at the session, said the NBA had a report on the subject that took into consideration all the peculiarities of the sector and NBA is recommending a 200% increment in the judicial officer’s remuneration.
However, the Revenue Mobilizations Allocation Commissioner said it recommended a 114% increment based on the new salary structure.
Fapohunda said the NBA will continue to engage all critical stakeholders on the need for the review.
The RMAFC commissioner for Kano state, Farouk Abubakar, stated that while the NBA studied judges’ remunerations from 6 African countries, the commission went around several countries beyond Africa before action was taken on the subject.
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