Constitution Review: NJC Should Determine Salaries Of Judges, Says CJN

Constitution Review: NJC Should Determine Salaries Of Judges, Says CJN
Tanko Muhammed

Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Mohammed has expressed that the constitution be amended to mandate the National Judicial Council (NJC) to fix and review the salaries of judges every four years.

Muhammad made this submission in the paper he presented as recommendations of the judiciary at the national public hearing organised by the senate committee on review of the 1999 Constitution in Abuja on Thursday.

In the 17-page paper titled “Input by the Judiciary to the Proposed Alteration to the 1999 Constitution (As Amended)’’, the CJN proposed 45 constitutional amendments for the judiciary.

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According to a statement by Ahuraka Isah, Muhammad’s spokesperson, in item 38, the CJN wants Part 1 of the Third Schedule Paragraph 21 to the Constitution to be altered to include sub-paragraph ‘h’ to the effect that NJC should “fix, in conjunction with salaries and wages commission, salaries and other emoluments of judicial staff; in the case of judicial officers, to review such salaries no later than four years.”

At the moment, Section 84 (1) of the constitution states that the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is responsible for reviewing judges’ salaries.

This was made possible by the enactment of the ‘Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances, etc.) (Amendment) Act, 2008′, which took effect on February 1, 2007.

The CJN pointed out that judges’ salaries have remained the same for about 13 years because the Act has not been reviewed since 2008.