The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has on Thursday in Abuja, stated that the incompatible wellbeing and other working conditions of the Nigeria’s judiciary, are “vital and would be treated as such.”
The President, also stated that even though the federal government is ready to act, it can only act within the bounds of its available resources looking at the awful state of the country’s economy “presently battling with corruption, insecurity, and other economic challenges,” intensified by the COVID-19 and the current situation (war) in Ukraine.
According to a document signed by Garba Shehu, his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, President Buhari was reacting to a plea by the chairman and representatives of the Body of Benchers, and a body of prominent legal practitioners of “That is, the highest division in the legal profession.”
The report is titled ‘We will ease the difficult conditions under which judges work: President Muhammadu Buhari’
The President, Buhari stated that a democratic government like the one he heads, “standing on a tripod consisting the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, cannot stand upright where one of its vital pillars, the Judiciary, is not properly developed, preserved and sustained to deliver on its very fundamental constitutional duties.”
The President, therefore assured to act instantly on the report of the committee he arranged on his own back in 2018 to examine the welfare and working conditions of the nation’s judiciary.
“Let me guarantee you that the problems would be given due and immediate attention within the resources available to the federal government,” he said.
The Body of Benchers stated “We want to plead with the president. We need to save the Judiciary. The situation is critical. Let us all commiserate with the nation’s Judiciary. I know you to have reverence, feelings for the country’s Judiciary. You have topmost compassion, respect and consideration. The Body of Benchers as heads of the legal occupation makes these endorsements to Your Excellency, President Buhari, with a request that they should be attended to quickly”.
