2021 budget: Awomolo, Ali, Ozekhome seek improved judiciary funding

Top lawyers in the country have urged the National Assembly to increase the 2021 budget estimate for the judiciary.

President Muhammadu Buhari had Thursday last week presented N13.08 trillion 2021 budget before a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representative, where the sum of N110 billion was earmarked for the judiciary.

However, some Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) have described the allocation to the judiciary as “paltry”, particularly when viewed against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic that has amplified the need to expand court facilities for swift justice dispensation.

While reacting to Buhari’s presentation of N110 billion budget estimate for the judiciary over the weekend, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), said Nigeria’s post-COVID-19 judiciary requires massive investment in critical infrastructure in terms of recruitment and remuneration of judges as well as information communication technology (ICT) to fast tract adjudication of cases.

He lamented that the nation’s judiciary under President Buhari’s watch had not been accorded its rightful place as an independent arm of government, adding, “The judiciary has always been at the short end of the stick. It has not found favour at all under the current dispensation.”

Awomolo further explained, “The truth of the matter is that the judiciary of the Federal Republic of Nigeria post-COVID-19 cannot be regarded as judiciary pre-COVID-19. This is because the new normal has thrown up the imperativeness of the use of information communication technology as a tool to achieving the quick administration of justice, whether criminal or civil.”

Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mallam Yusuf Ali, in a separate reaction to the new budget cycle, said “it is in the strategic interest of Nigeria and Nigerians that adequate funding for the judiciary should be a priority.”

He advised that “The judiciary should stop going to the executive cap-in-hand,” saying, “If you want an independent judiciary, it should be independent in the way it dispenses its own expenses and income as well as expenditure.”

Mallam Ali averred that, “If the judiciary is given adequate funding, the leadership of the judiciary will do exactly what should be put in place to have a 21st Century court system that will deliver justice.”

On his part, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) advised the federal government to ensure that the judiciary’s budget remains on the first-line-charge.

“The judiciary is on a first-line charge. Its allocations should be paid directly to the heads of the courts; to be disbursed directly for budgeted projects.”

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