President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to change the poor state of the welfare and working conditions of the nation’s Judiciary for the better.
He assured the arm of government that its situation would get serious attention from his administration.
President Buhari gave the assurance when he hosted the chairman and representatives of the Body of Benchers (BOB) at the Presidential Villa yesterday in Abuja.
But the President cautioned the Judiciary to consider the state of the economy, where the resources to attend to its needs would come from.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the President let his guests have a peep into the burdens of his administration.
He explained that the Federal Government is “currently battling insecurity, corruption and economic challenges,” with the challenges posed by COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine.
President Buhari stressed that a democratic government, like the one he leads, which is “standing on a tripod, comprising the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, cannot stand where one of its three pillars, the Judiciary, is not properly nurtured, maintained and sustained to deliver on its very pivotal constitutional duties”.
The President promised to act quickly on the report of the committee he set up in 2018 to review the welfare and working conditions of the Judiciary.
“Let me assure you that the issues would be given due and urgent attention within the resources available to government,” he said.
President Buhari congratulated the Body of Benchers on the successful completion of the “Benchers’ Complex at Jabi,” a building he described as impressive, to house the body and provide conference facilities, among other things.
He accepted the BOB’s invitation to personally inaugurate the structure.
BOB Chairman, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), described the condition in which judges, especially the Justices of the Supreme Court work, as pathetic, appalling and below the minimum standards.
“We want to plead with you. We need to bail out the Judiciary. The situation is bad. Let us sympathise with the Judiciary. I know you to have respect, feelings for the Judiciary. You have sympathy, empathy and consideration. The Body of Benchers, as elders of the legal profession, makes these recommendations to Your Excellency, with a plea that they should be attended to urgently,” Olanipekun said.
Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister Abubakar Malami (SAN) made a case for collaboration of the Executive and the Judicial arms to “open the books to enable both sides see the depth of the decay and know how far to go in putting in place the necessary remedial measures”.