The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Maikyau (SAN) has urged the Federal Government to deliberately invest in the welfare of judges and justices by strengthening the human capital within the justice sector.
Maikyau, while speaking at the Annual Legal Year Ceremony of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, urged government to urgently act to improve the welfare of judges and meet all the infrastructural needs of the judiciary.
He decried the poor working condition of the court and the welfare of justices, saying that the welfare of judges has been an issue for some time now and attracted national attention recently when justices of the Supreme raised the matter.
According to Maikyau, salaries and allowances of judges and justices in the country has remained the same since 2008 and that has had a negative impact on justice and justice delivery in the country.
Also, he emphasized the need for the judiciary to be truly independent and described as worrisome the fact that “none of the presidential candidates for the upcoming 2023 election, who attended the Opening Ceremony of the just concluded NBA-AGC on the 21st August 2022, spared any thought on the independence of the judiciary”.
NBA President called on the Federal Government to revisit the 2018 Report of the Committee on the Review of Judicial Salaries and Conditions of Service, to bring same in tune with our present-day realities and give effect to the final recommendations that will arise there from.
