The N70bn approved for the judiciary at both the state and federal levels, including the Federal Capital Territory, represents about 1.15 per cent of the N6.06trn total budget of the Federal Government for 2016. A document obtained by our correspondent from the Federal Ministry of Finance showed that the nation’s judiciary had proposed a cumulative of N143, 287,130,493.96 as its budget for 2016. It was learnt that the National Judicial Council, which coordinates and presents a unified budget for the judiciary at all levels, was forced to readjust the N143bn budget proposal to the N70bn ceiling which the Federal Ministry of Finance gave it for 2016. The National Assembly passed the 2016 budget last week without downward or upward review of the N70bn proposed by the NJC. Previously in 2014 and 2015, the National Assembly approved N73bn for the judiciary in each of the two years. The document obtained by our correspondent showed that N11.6bn was proposed as recurrent for state courts for 2016 but it was slashed to N10, 370,100,000 in the 2016 Appropriation Act. It also showed that N56, 604,685,172.69, which was proposed for federal judiciary’s recurrent in 2016, was slashed to N40, 915,357,853.73. The sum of N71, 763,445,321.27 was proposed as the capital for federal judiciary for 2016, but the figure was reduced to N15, 814,542,146.27. While the sum of N1.5bn which was allocated for pension and gratuity under the 2015 budget was the same amount proposed for it this year, yet that figure was slashed to N1.4bn in the 2016 budget. Benefits of former Chief Justices of Nigeria for which N1.5bn was proposed, got only N1bn in the new Appropriation Act. While the judiciary proposed to spend N600m on its Information Technology project for 2016, only N500m was approved for it in the new approved budget. In December 2015, media aide to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (Justice Mahmud Mohammed), Mr. Ahuraka Isah, quoted his boss as expressing concern over “the yearly miserable appropriation for the judiciary” during a visit to his office by members of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters. The CJN was said to have told the legislators that only one per cent of the nation’s budget was being allocated to the judiciary which he said inadvertently put the judiciary and by extension, the nation in danger. The CJN was quoted as saying, “Recently, at the opening ceremony of the 2015 All Nigeria Judges Conference, I alluded to the fact that the Judiciary was appropriated a total sum equivalent to less than one per cent of the total national budget of the government of the country. “In many respects, the judiciary has recently been left with the impression that it is being asked to carry the weight of justice with one arm tied behind its back.” Earlier in September 2013, during a ceremony marking the commencement of a new legal year of the Supreme Court, Justice Mohammed’s predecessor, Justice Aloma Mukhtar (retd.), had a cause to also lament the yearly decline in the judiciary’s budget. She had said, “A situation where budgetary allocation to the judiciary continues to drop while the general government budget is on a steady increase every year is clearly an impediment to the quick and effective dispensation of justice in Nigeria and, on the whole, a setback to the current effort at transforming the Judiciary. “Over the years, funding of the courts has remained a challenge, as evident in the conditions of many courts in Nigeria today. “Statistics has shown that funding from the Federal Government has witnessed a steady decline since 2010, from N95bn in that year to N85bn in 2011, then N75bn in 2012 and dropped again in the 2013 budget to N67bn.” Courts, institutions and other heads, whose proposed spending are captured in the NJC’s budget are the Supreme Court, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, the Court of Appeal, the Federal High Court and the National Industrial Court. Others include the Federal Capital Territory High Court, FCT’s Sharia Court of Appeal and FCT’s Customary Court of Appeal and the NJC. The rest are Federal Judicial Service Commission, the Judicial Service Committee of the FCT, the National Judicial Institute, the Body of Benchers, retirement benefits of former Chief Justices of Nigeria, IT Project for Judiciary and state judicial offices. The document juxtaposes the allocation to the various heads under the 2016 Appropriation Act with what each of them got under the approved 2015 budget as well as their proposals for the year which totalled N143bn, but were slashed to the aggregate sum of N70bn. Virtually all the courts and the federal judiciary bodies have the amount allocated to them last year slashed in the 2016 Appropriation Act. By: Ade Adesomoju, Abuja Punch News]]>