SELECTIVE AND DISCRIMINATORY REWARD SYSTEM IN THE FCT MAGISTRATE ADMINISTRATION ; THE URGENT NEED FOR PUBLIC SCRUTINY
Mary Akanbi
23rd June, 2025
By M.O Idam Esq
When the tool of justice gets infected with corrupt practices, corruption itself becomes a lifestyle of the nation—this is the case of the Magistrate Courts administration of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Aware that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for very unpopular reasons, does not recognise magistrates as judicial officers. However, it is not in dispute that magistrates are retained as the cradle for justice administration in Nigeria but without the equivalence of the benefits and privileges given to judicial officers.
Without attempting to speak about magistrates’ recruitment procedure in the FCT which has raced far away from transparency, I am concerned about the selective or despotic style of allocation of official rights, benefits and entitlements.
Strangely, employment benefits and other official privileges of magistrates in the FCT, such as official vehicles and housing have become not only a political subject within the system, it is selectively allocated based on interest, affinity or even consanguinity between the authorities and the magistrates, leaving those outside this ‘criteria’ as orphans–in–public–service to their fate.
What would have been the moral answer to why official vehicles and accommodation would be freely given to certain magistrates and none of the two classes of official benefits are received by certain others, despite being in the same employment cadre?
As a lawyer, I have seen magistrates of over five years post-employment in the FCT take taxicabs to and from the court, or stand stranded by the roadside on different occasions waiting for taxi while their colleagues, who are sometimes younger in employment, drive in official vehicles and if you investigate, they may also live in official accommodation. Efforts to find answers to this, have unravelled nothing but the fact that the disbursement of these benefits are based on preferential considrations.The criteria for promotion or elevation of a magistrate in the FCT is entirely another kettle of fish.
Today, magistrates without traceable or trackable surnames or connections to the powers, in Nigeria dream not of elevation or promotion, regardless of how brilliant or industrious they may be, they leave it to fate. Their official benefits are exclusively determined by the mood of the Chief Judge. Unfortunately, this system favours mediocrity against diligence and patriotism.
The bane of my alarm this morning is not the above stated effect of this practice. but the hazard associated with the nepotistic administration of official benefits and entitlements to FCT magistrates, which not only exposes the less privileged magistrates to corruption but poses grave danger to their lives.
The truth is, a magistrates left to jump commercial vehicles to and from the court are, among others, most likely to bump into litigants over whose pending cases the magistrates would be expected to exercise their discretion, one way or the other. They are also likely to be harmed by a disgruntled or malicious litigant or their relatives who would have taken advantage of their unfortunate circumstance to cause them harm.
Scornful is the fact that Magistrates in FCT earn less than N250,000.00 as monthly salary, and they are expected to preside over both civil and criminal cases, including those that are worth millions of Naira in human interests in them, without element of compromise.
I doubt the quality of justice that can be produced by a hungry justice system.
While I seek a review of the monthly salary of the FCT magistrates, I call on the National Assembly to carry out a holistic investigation on the method, procedure and criteria for the allocation of official vehicles and housing accommodations to magistrates in the FCT.
M.O. IDAM
