The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, in Abuja accused the National Assembly of putting the judiciary and by extension, the nation in danger by appropriating miserable funds yearly for the judiciary.
The CJN who said this during the courtesy visit of members of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters at the Supreme Court added that it was rather scandalous for National Assembly to appropriate less than one per cent of the nation’s budgeted funds to the judiciary.
A statement issued by the Media Aide to the CJN, Mr Ahuraka Isah, said the committee was led by Senator David Umaru and included Senators Akpabio, James Manager, Joshua Lidani, Chukwuka Utazi, and Abdullahi Adamu.
Other Supreme Court Justices that accompanied the CJN to receive the senators were Justices Walter Onnoghen, I. T. Muhammad, M. S. Muntaka-Coomassie, Suleiman Galadima, Bode Rhodes-Vivour, Nwali Sylvester Ngwuta, Mary Ukaego Peter-Odili, Olukayode Ariwoola, Musa Dattijo Muhammad, Clara Bata Ogunbiyi, K. M. O. Kekere-Ekun, J. I. Okoro and Amiru Sanusi.
The CJN said: ‘’The current level of budgetary provision for the Judiciary is insufficient to meet the required standards of justice and the rates of case disposal that Nigeria needs in order to be a just and equitable society that makes our country an attractive destination for future foreign direct investments and job creation.
‘’Recently, at the opening ceremony of the 2015 All Nigeria Judges Conference, I alluded to the fact that the Judiciary was appropriated a total sum equivalent to less than 1 per cent of the total national budget of the government of the country. In many respects, the Judiciary has recently been left with the impression that it is being asked to carry the weight of Justice with one arm tied behind its back.
‘’To put the insufficiency of that sum into context, a frightening statistics that we would like you to debate upon is in regard to the presence of only 1,074 judges of superior courts in the entire Nigerian judiciary inclusive of the recent appointments made last month. This means that at our superior courts, there is one judge for appeal for 158,287 persons inclusive of Appeal Courts and the Supreme Court, based on conservative estimates.
‘’My distinguished senators, at the Court of Appeal, we now boast of one judge for 1,888, 888 appellants and one Justice of the Supreme Court for every ten million people (10, 000, 000.00: 1). As you can imagine, our dockets are swamped.’’
The CJN said despite the paucity of funds, the judges still had to face intermittent power supply, poor and inadequate court infrastructure, absenteeism of parties and an avalanche of frivolous cases.
“Our judges are insufficiently remunerated and benefits are sometimes not paid on time. In this situation, our judges face privations that would ordinarily lead lesser men to unscrupulous acts.
‘’I must remind you that the Judiciary is part of a chain of justice that includes other stakeholders. As such, we also call on the legislature to actively support the government in developing the criminal justice system and offices such as forensics laboratories, police ballisticians and other professionals, so as to increase crime detection and modernise our law enforcement structure’’.
‘’Mr. Chairman a major concern is the pace of justice and its negative effect on the ease of doing business in Nigeria. Indeed, the judiciary has no choice but to dispense justice quicker, in line with international business norms and conventions. However, this requires further reform of the constitution to remove the automatic right of appeal, which contributes immensely to delays in dispensation of justice. The aim of this, among other things, is to limit the possibility of vexatious interlocutory appeals, while ensuring that only novel and unique, constitutional questions of law are considered by the Supreme Court, in the interest of justice itself. Our laws are obsolete in many areas and penalties are out of sync with the current realities. I therefore call upon your committee to assist in passing such statutory instruments for reforms as would assist the courts in this regard.’’
The committee chairman, Senator David Umaru, said the courtesy visit which gave room for the interaction between the judiciary and legislators would go a long way in resolving the issues of constitutional amendment and appropriations for the judiciary.
He said: “We shall look into the Bill, which was not passed by the seventh Senate and ensure the constitution is amended to tackle some of the causes of weaknesses in our justice delivery system.
https://www.today.ng/news/national/52155/cjn-accuses-nass-of-starving-judiciary-of-funds

Great analysis


’My distinguished senators, at the Court of Appeal, we now boast of one judge for 1,888, 888 appellants and one Justice of the Supreme Court for every ten million people (10, 000, 000.00: 1). As you can imagine, our dockets are swamped.’’

The CJN said despite the paucity of funds, the judges still had to face intermittent power supply, poor and inadequate court infrastructure, absenteeism of parties and an avalanche of frivolous cases.

“Our judges are insufficiently remunerated and benefits are sometimes not paid on time. In this situation, our judges face privations that would ordinarily lead lesser men to unscrupulous acts".

Anyway, the monies they collect from bail should be enough (sef)..imagine Dokpesi N400million expected as income

Where is lalasticlala sef?

Bail money is only a bond. It belongs to the owner but is kept untouched by the bank until the court lifts the ban. Try to understand that

Is Judiciary budget not a first-line charge?