Nigeria’s judicial officers earn N33.5 billion annually

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Remuneration for Chief Justice, Other Judicial Officers hit N33.47bn Annually

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, federal judicial officers, and state judicial officers have in the last one year guzzled a total of N33.47 billion as emoluments and other allowances, checks by the Economic Confidential has revealed.

The report obtained and computed by the Economic intelligence magazine showed the annual salaries, regular and non-regular allowances of 934 judicial officers in the country, including the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

The allowances include: vehicle maintenance and fuel, personal assistants, domestic staff, entertainment and utilities allowances. Others are; hardship allowance, outfit and newspapers allowances respectively.

A careful observation of the report showed that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN,  has an annual salary of N3.36 million. And like the President of Nigeria, the holder is to be provided with vehicle maintenance and fuelling, domestic staff, entertainment, utilities and newspapers.

Furthermore, the CJN has 25 per cent of his annual basic salary reserved for personal assistant and outfit each or  its equivalent of N840,993.13 respectively. The holder also has half of annual salary as hardship allowance which amounts to N1,681,986.25.

However, accommodation and furniture will be provided for the CJN, while annual leave, severance gratuity and vehicle loan which is optional will be 10 per cent, 300 per cent and 400 per cent respectively. His duty tour allowance within Nigeria is settled at N50,000 per night, while that of overseas or Estacode amounts to $2000.00 per night.

Justices of the Supreme Court  and the President of the Court of Appeal have the same annual salary of N2.47 million each, while Justice of the Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of Federal High Court, Chief Judge of the FCT, Judge of the Federal High Court, President of the National Industrial Court, Grand Khadi of the FCT Sharia Court of Appeal, President FCT Customary Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of States, Grand Khadi state Sharia Court of Appeal and President state Customary Court of Appeal all have N1.99 million each as annual salary.

Furthermore, Judges of the Federal High Court, National Industrial Court, FCT High Court, State High Courts, FCT Sharia Court of Appeal, FCT Customary Court of Appeal, Khadi state Sharia Court of Appeal and State Customary Court of Appeal all have N1.80 million each as annual salary.

All the Judges in the country apart from the Chief Justice of Nigeria, have 75 per cent of their annual salaries as vehicle maintenance and fuelling, 25 per cent for personal assistant, 50 per cent as hardship allowance, 75 per cent for domestic staff, and 45 per cent for entertainment. Others are: 30 per cent of their annual salaries as for utilities, 25 per cent for outfit and 15 per cent for newspapers.

As for non-regular allowances, except the CJN, all judges have 200 per cent for accommodation once a year, 300 per cent of annual salary for furniture, 10 per cent for annual leave, 300 per cent as severance gratuity and 400 per cent for vehicle loan which is, however, optional.

All the Justices of the Supreme Court and President of the Court of Appeal are entitled to N35,000.00 as duty tour allowance per night within the country, while their estacode is $1300  per night when they travel out of the country.

Also,  Justices  of the Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of Federal High Court, Chief Judge of the FCT, Judge of the Federal High Court, President of the National Industrial Court, Grand Khadi of the FCT Sharia Court of Appeal, President FCT Customary Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of States, Grand Khadi state Sharia Court of Appeal and President state Customary Court of Appeal all have N30,000 as duty tour allowances each within the country and $1,100 as estacode.

Other judges outside the above are entitled to N25,000.00 as duty tour allowance per night within the country and $800 for estacode when they travel out of the country per night.