SAN: Nigeria not developed enough to support increase in judges’ retirement age

Thomas Okpoko, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has rejected calls by some stakeholders to increase the retirement age of judges.

He said this on Monday at a valedictory session in honour of Ejembi Eko, who is retiring having attained the age of 70.

Afe Babalola, a senior advocate of Nigeria, had, in April 2021, advocated for the retirement age of supreme court justices to be increased from 70 to 100.

But in his presentation on Monday,  Okpoko, who represented the body of SANs at the event, said while some stakeholders have called for the upward review of the retirement age for judges, others have suggested that supreme court justices should be made life benchers as in the United States’ supreme court.

“Although this suggestion looks attractive, especially against the backdrop of frequent retirement in recent years of justices, who look very well and strong at their retirement age, it is not feasible for now as our country is not developed and matured enough to adopt the retirement age of justices of the USA,” he said.

“This is because the society and social set-up of the US is not the same as the society and social set-up of Nigeria where our justices serve.

“In the US, a justice of the supreme court does not think of power outage, generating sets or diesel to run generators.

“American judges have full complements of highly trained qualified and efficient personal staff, who provide assistance to the justices in real time. Personal staff are appointed on the basis of competence and efficiency.

“Our own system has not developed to that stage. There is no provision in place for providing each justice of this supreme court, a full complement of such personal staff to assist their lordships. How many special consultants and researchers do we have in place? The facilities are simply not in the Nigeria court system.

“It is, therefore, not wise to consider increasing the retirement age of our serving justices for now. We do not have to adopt to our country, a retirement age suitable for USA but unsuitable for our country.”