Federal Sustainability: Giving primacy to financial autonomy cum frugality among organs of government

Matters revolving around the cost of governance in Nigeria have most recently become topical in the scale of national discourse. The subject has become reverberating as a subject of recommendation as the concern over the sustainability of the Federation has assumed a more alarming dimension. It has been advanced on plausible grounds with relevance to the economy that if the situation in the Country must wear a smiling look from the prevailing gory appearance, the need to address the ravaging woes of the economy which bear strings to the offsprings of the various socio-economic and political disturbances, must be addressed holistically. In giving attention to this, the point to narrow down the cost of governance which runs largely on overheads must be pragmatically and structurally effected, to deliver the course of capital projects from the strangulating effects of the overbearing cost of governance in the Federation.

The cost of running political offices in the Nigerian Federal Structure within the existing procedural patterns have been known to be traditionally costly with entanglements of avoidable attachments which are observably strings of growth retardation. Thus, the manifestations of these strings are apparently appendages which have over the years created structures of duplications overwhelming the system of governance, thereby sapping resources that should productively be channeled into development courses. The pace and profile of executing capital projects have been observed to be suffering direly under the unmatched setting.

The system of running cost of governance in the Country has also been perused to be bearing another unwholesome character of unbalanced pattern which is skewed towards the advantage of one or two arms of the Government than the other. The perusal has equally formed another ground of argument against the structural patterns of budgeting character. The argument has been an ongoing discourse attracting reactions, particularly from the school of thought canvassing the independence of the Judiciary. In this light, the course for the financial autonomy of the Judicial arm of government in the Federation has become a topical issue. Questions over the jumbo pay and frivolous allowances of legislators in the Country and the occupants of executive seats against the apparent suffocating provision for the office of Judges across the Country, have been resounding in recent times. The reactions of judicial stakeholders have prompted industrial actions in response to the skewed arrangement.

Frontal Social Right Group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), in a letter dated 10th, April 2021, signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, had called on the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to “urgently review upward the remuneration, allowances, and conditions of service for Nigerian judges, and to review downward the remuneration and allowances of high-ranking political office-holders in order to address the persistent poor treatment of judges, and to improve access of victims of corruption to justice.” SERAP in the letter which bore corresponding relevance to not only the RMAFC, but also the National Assembly, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), and the National Judicial Council (NUC); had also urged the Commission to send its review and recommendations to the National Assembly for appropriate remedial and legislative action, as provided for by the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended].

SERAP had argued in the letter that  “Judges should get all to which they are reasonably entitled, and it is unfair, illegal, unconstitutional, and discriminatory to continue to treat judges as ‘second-class people’ while high-ranking political office-holders enjoy lavish salaries and allowances. The remuneration and allowances of judges have fallen substantially behind the average salaries and allowances of political office-holders such as President, Vice-President, governors and their deputies, as well as members of the National Assembly. Nigerian judges are among the least paid in the world. The poor treatment of judges is neither fair to them nor to the Nigerian people. Judges deserve remuneration, allowances, and conditions of service commensurate with their judicial powers and responsibilities. While the remuneration and allowances of judges are grossly insufficient to enable them to maintain themselves and their families in reasonable comfort, high-ranking political office-holders continue to enjoy lavish allowances, including life pensions, and access to security votes, which they have powers to spend as they wish.”

Further points of note contained in the letter read partly: “According to our information, the last review of the remuneration, allowances, and conditions of service for political, public and judicial office holders carried out by RMAFC in 2009 shows huge disparity between the remuneration and allowances of judges and those of political office-holders. Judges’ work is very considerable but they cannot give their entire time to their judicial duties without the RMAFC reviewing upward their remuneration and allowances, and closing the gap and disparity between the salaries of judges and those of political office-holders such as the President, Vice-President, governors and their deputies, as well as lawmakers. Although one of the three coordinate branches of the government, the judiciary is treated with contempt, and considered so unimportant… Despite their important roles and responsibilities, Nigerian judges are poorly treated when their remuneration, salaries, allowances, and conditions of service are compared with political office-holders. Judges should not have to endure the most poignant financial worries.

“The increase in the cost of living and the injustice of inadequate salaries bears heavily on judges, as it undermines their ability to effectively perform their judicial functions. The roles and functions performed by judges across the country are second to none in their importance including in facilitating access of victims of corruption and human rights violations to justice and effective remedies. Far-reaching questions of constitutional law depend upon them for solution. Judges are also required to determine issues, which profoundly affect the rights and well-being of the people.

“The meaning and effect of anti-corruption legislation and treaties such as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission Act, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] Act, the UN Convention against Corruption, and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption depend upon their learning, wisdom and judgment. The stability of the country’s system of government, a government of laws rather than of men, depending as it does to so great an extent upon the confidence and respect of the people for those who, as judges, hold the scales of justice in their hands, depends upon the character and the wisdom of these men and women. The RMAFC has the powers under paragraph n, Third Schedule, Part 1 of the Nigerian Constitution to determine the remuneration, salaries and allowances appropriate for judges and political office holders, consistent with sections 84 and 124 of the Constitution. SERAP notes that Nigerian authorities between May 1999 and March 2011 reviewed upward the salaries and allowances of political office holders at least on four occasions. However, the salaries and allowances of judicial officers were only reviewed twice during the same period. Nigerian government and the RMAFC have the duty to provide adequate resources to enable the judiciary to properly perform its functions. As a safeguard of judicial independence, the courts’ budget ought to be prepared in collaboration with the judiciary having regard to the needs and requirements of judicial administration. Furthermore, the remuneration and pensions of judges must be secured by law at an adequate level that is consistent with their status and is sufficient to safeguard against conflict of interest and corruption.

“Nigerians would continue to be denied access to justice, to a better judiciary and a better administration of justice until judges across the country are paid what they deserve. SERAP urges you and the RMAFC to separate the review of remuneration and salaries for judges from that of political office-holders. This would ensure fairness, and that judges receive the justice they so conscientiously dispense to others.”

The demand to remodel the revenue mobilisation allocation and fiscal structure of the Federation as a primal subject, has moved beyond a matter of consideration to that of necessity. The apparent resistance of the custodians of political power architectures whose  interest are well served under the prevailing condition against the interest of the Federation and the masses in whole, have continued to pitch the Country headlong into chaos. The need to put the interest of the masses and the Country at large forward should be the impetus driving the steering patterns in governing the Federation. The collusion of self-interests which condition the directional move of the Nigerian political space on the basis of which governance is premised has far long deprived the entire polity and it’s people the benefit of good governance and meaningful living.

It is therefore, a prima facie that for the narrative of the prevailing turbulence in the Country to have a wholesome turn, the need to put the interest of the entire populace and the Nigerian polity as an entity in the primal place of the underlying essence of governance in the Federation is key. In this light, the need to remodel the revenue allocation and fiscal structures of the Country by way of reconstitution to give resemblance to the necessity of redressing the skewed imbalance in the wage structures of remuneration among the arms of government is essential, in patterns that give reflection to the doctrine of autonomy of each organ.

Therefore, attention must be paid to the structure of governance in the Federation in the light of the necessity of reformative patterns to give resemblance to the need to reconstitute the character of the cost of running government and the necessity of establishing balance in the system of finance to give expression to the significance of financial autonomy which is relevant for the independence of all arms of government even as they work interdependently.