Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has appealed to the National and State Houses of Assemblies, to consider the inclusion of Magistrates within the definition of judicial officers in the constitution, in the process of the ongoing Constitutional review.

NBA through its president Mr. Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, OON, SAN, also urged NASS to consider other Judiciary staff; Registrars, Legal Assistants and other court workers in the Judicial Office Holders Salaries and Allowances law.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu last week, approved 300% salary rise and signed the Judicial Office Holders Salaries and Allowances Bill into law.

Reacting to that Maikyau in a statement he personally signed on Wednesday, called on “the National and State Houses of Assembly, to seriously consider the inclusion of Magistrates within the definition of Judicial Officers in the Constitution, in the process of the ongoing Constitutional review.

Advising judicial workers to justify the pay rise, Maikyau opined: “On a final note, I call on the Judiciary to justify the improvement in their remuneration. There must be a deliberate and conscious effort to work back into the hearts of Nigerians and revive public confidence in the Judiciary. On this point, I adopt the statement by Bolitha J. Laws, the former Chief Judge of the United States District of Columbia, in her address to the Bar Association of St Louise, where she noted that: “There should be two cardinal objectives of courts in a democracy. One is obvious: courts must accomplish justice. The second, often neglected, is: courts must convince those whom they serve that justice is being accomplished.”

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