By Ishaya Ibrahim
A political activist, Deji Adeyanju, has reacted angrily at Nigeria’s salary system where aides to politicians earn more than Supreme Court Justices.
According to the activist on Sunday, the aide on social media to then President Muhammadu Buhari earned far more than Supreme Court justices.
Adeyanju did not state the remuneration of the Justices of the Supreme Court. But Under the “Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances, etc) (Amendment) Act, 2008”, the Chief Justice of Nigeria’s annual basic salary is N3,353,972.50 (or N279,497.71 monthly), while other Justices of the Supreme Court and the President of the Court of Appeal receive N2,477,110 as basic annual salary or N206,425.83 monthly.
Meanwhile, Bashir Ahmad, while as spokesman on social media matters to then President Muhammadu Buhari, earned N1,043,176.88 monthly. After statutory deductions, his take-home pay amounted to N876,738.37.
During a lecture organised by Judiciary Correspondents last July in Lagos, a retired High Court Judge, Justice Taiwo Taiwo, said his monthly pension as a retired judge is in the region of N400,000.
In his post on X, formerly Twitter, Adeyanju said the salary system where aides to politicians earn far more than judges would lead to corrupt judiciary.
He said: “We pay aides of politicians better than we pay Supreme Court justices and we expect judges at the H/Court, CA & other courts not to compromise. Bashir Ahmed earned more than Supreme Court justices in the last 8yrs under Buhari. We have to do better as a nation.”
