The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem has pleaded with the federal government for an immediate upward review of judges’ salaries and their accommodation
She made the appeal in the light of the fact that salaries of judicial officers in Nigeria was last reviewed ten years ago .Besides that the take home package of judges and other judicial workers have been eroded by inflation and the decreasing purchasing power of Naira that today exchanges for one Naira to 0.00258 UnitedStates Dollars official rate.
President of Court of Appeal made the appeal during the opening of the court 2021/22 legal year in Abuja. According the President of Court of Appeal the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), who is the Head of the Judiciary in Nigeria, as at today takes home N279, 497 as monthly salary, while his brother justices on the Supreme Court bench go home with the sum of N206,425.
Justice Dongban-Mensem said that as President of Court of Appeal, she receives the sum of N206,425, while other justices on the bench of the Court of Appeal, go home with N166,285 every month.
She noted with sadness that the salary structure for judicial officers and staff in Nigeria have consistently ranked poor when compared to that of their counterpart in other African and Commonwealth countries.
Justice Dongban-Mensem lamented that the last time salaries of judicial officers were reviewed in Nigeria was in 2008, when the upward review was made and it took effect on February 1, 2007.
She therefore called on the federal and states governments to leave up to their obligations under the implementation of Financial autonomy of state legislature and the state judiciary order, 2020, known as Executive Order 10.
“I implore the government of the federation and states to urgently review the salaries and allowances of judicial officers and staff.
” The salaries of justices are static with no graduation as in the civil and public service. We have been on one salary grade for over 10 years now.
“May I also call on government to increase financial allocations that will enable us to introduce technical innovations that would improve adjudication”, she said.
Justice Dongban-Mensem pleaded twice in her speech with minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Faahola SAN and Attorney General of Federation Abubakar Malami SAN who were in attendance to prevail on National Executive Council to also repair the dilapidated judges’ houses that were allocated for their use by the regional government’s in the 60s.