The Chief Justice of Nigeria will now receive N5.4 million as monthly salary as against the N560,000 received over the years.
This is a result of the executive bill sent by the president to the National Assembly to end the prolonged stagnation in their remuneration and to reflect contemporary socio-economic realities
TVC Judiciary correspondent Celestina Iria looks a lot at the allowances of the CJN from 2009 till date and how the new salary structure will impact the justice sector.
In Nigeria, the salaries of judicial officers are determined by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission
The commission’s remuneration package for judicial holders from 2007 -2009 which was also the last time the salaries of judicial officers were reviewed shows that the CJN earns N280,000 as annual salary
70,082 for his assistant which is paid monthly
140,165 for hardship and 70,082 for monthly outfit, making a total of 560,662 monthly and 6,727,944 annually.
Other allowances include a severance gratuity of 10,091,917 after a successful completion of tenure.
This poor remuneration has always been a source of concern to stakeholders in the judiciary.
Justice Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae of the National Industrial Court had on July 2022 in his judgment ordered the upward review of the salaries of judicial officers, he held that the CJN should be paid 10 Million monthly
This time around, the President Bola Tinubu led administration listened to the concerns of these judicial officers and on 19th March forwarded a letter and a bill to the National Assembly seeking to end the “prolonged stagnation” of the remuneration of judicial officers.
The lower legislative chamber passed the bill after the third reading.
In the bill, the new monthly salary for the CJN is N5.4 million, which is N1.1millon basic salary and N4.3million regular allowance.
Personal assistant monthly salary N300,000
Monthly Hardship Allowance 558,000
Monthly Outfit allowance 275,000 amongst others.
In total, the CJN will earn N64.8 million annually.
This upward review will also trickle down to other members of the bench and judicial officers as the bill also proposes N61.4 million annually for justices of the Supreme Court
Judges will now be financially buoyant to meet their various personal needs and also have a good working environment and support system.
