NBA wants constitution review to limit Supreme Court cases

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has called for review of the Nigerian constitution, with a view to limiting the number of cases that end up at the Supreme Court.

The body also called for urgent appointments of extra Justices in order to bring the Supreme Court’s total number of Justices up to 21, as required under Section 230(1)(B) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Justice Amina Augie recently retired, bringing the total number of justices on the Supreme Court down to 11.

The association’s president, Yakubu Maikyau, SAN, highlighted that the retirement of Justice Augie had increased the workload on the justices in a statement released on Tuesday by the NBA’s national publicity secretary, Akorede Lawal.

Maikyau also demanded that the Constitution be changed to limit the number of cases that would be handled by the Supreme Court.

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The statement partly read, “The NBA President expressed concerns that the exit of Hon. Justice Augie from the Bench of the Supreme Court has further reduced the number of Justices of this Court, with the attendant increase in the workload of the already overworked/overburdened and, unfortunately, poorly remunerated justices.

“The NBA President noted that it has become imperative that the Nigerian Constitution be amended to increase the threshold for the number of justices to be appointed to the Supreme Court and to reduce the number of matters that get to the Supreme Court by limiting the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to certain constitutional matters.”

The NBA president also disclosed that the association had been in talks with the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, and the National Judicial Council over the remuneration of judicial officers.

“The NBA President stated that President Bola Tinubu has directed a presidential working group to harmonise the recommendations from RMAFC, NBA, and NJC, with the view to include the outcome in the 2024 budget appropriation, ” the statement added.

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