THE National Judicial Council (NJC) has recommended Kudirat Kekere-Ekun as the next Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).
This followed the end of the tenure of the outgoing CJN, Olukayode Ariwoola.
Having reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, Ariwoola will resign from the bench on August 22.
Kekere-Ekun was recommended as the new CJN during an emergency closed-door meeting originally scheduled for Friday but was moved to Thursday in Abuja.
At the meeting, the NJC also recommended 27 other people as state High Court judges.
If confirmed, Kekere-Ekun will become the second female CJN after Mariam Aloma Mukhtar.
Mukhtar, the first female CJN held the position between July 2012 and November 2014.
After Ariwoola, the 66-year-old Kekere-Ekun is the Supreme Court’s oldest senior justice in terms of judicial ranking.
Born on May 7, 1958, Kekere-Ekun has spent 11 years on the bench of the apex court after she was appointed the fifth female Justice of the court on July 8, 2013.
She graduated with an LL. B. from the University of Lagos in 1980 and an LL.M. in November 1983 from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was called to the Nigerian Bar on July 10, 1981.
Kekere-Ekun was named a judge of the Lagos State High Court on July 19, 1996. From November 1996 to May 1999, she presided over the Robbery and Firearms Tribunal in Zone II, Ikeja, Lagos.
She was promoted to the Court of Appeal on September 22, 2004, where she served in several Divisions before presiding over the appellate court’s Makurdi and Aku Divisions in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
On Monday, July 8, 2013, she was sworn in as the fifth female justice of the Supreme Court, having been promoted to that position.
Kekere-Ekun recommendation came a day after President Bola Tinubu signed into law a bill seeking a new salary structure for judicial officers, including the CJN.
The bill (now law) substantially increased the annual earnings of the CJN to N64 million, while the President of the Court of Appeal will earn N62.4 million.
The ICIR reports that the upward review of the salary of the judicial workers will also see the justices of the Supreme Court earning N61.4 million annually.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had in March, transmitted a letter to the Senate to approve a new bill seeking to provide new salaries and allowances for judicial officers in Nigeria.
A breakdown of the bill, as reported, showed that the CJN would receive a monthly salary of N5.4 million (N5,385,047.26) amounting to N64.8 million per annum.
It also showed that the CJN would receive a monthly basic salary of N1.1 million, and N4.3 million in regular allowances.
Beyond the CJN, the bill outlines salary adjustments for various tiers of the judiciary, with the justices of the Supreme Court earning a total package of N4.2 million, and the President of the Court of Appeal taking home a monthly package of N4.4 million.
A reporter with the ICIR
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