Following President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the bill harmonising the retirement age of judges across courts to 70 years, some lawyers have urged the president to critically look into the welfare of judges rather than over labouring them with work.

Stakeholders said the remuneration of judges and their welfare should have been accorded more priority than the retirement age.

The Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN), Mr. Omejalile Ebenezer, described the development as suicidal, adding that sponsors of the bill did it for their selfish benefits.

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The human rights promoter said the working environment for judges is very harsh and complicated. “The increased age in judges retirement is nothing but a joke and suicidal. Those who sponsored such a bill did it for their selfish benefits. “Why did the president hurriedly sign the age increment bill? Invariably, the president is telling Nigerians that old wine that gets better with age is the main thing now. “This action would stagnate the promotion of young and aspiring Judges, and make them wait forever. The initial 65 years retirement age is much better,” he stated.

Also, another human rights promoter, Dr. Monday Ubani urged the government not to over labour the judges for them not to die in service.

He said: “Before it used to be 65 years, but now it has been increased to 70 years. I don’t know what prompted them to increase it, whether it is a clamour from those justices who are in the system, or retired ones are lamenting that they left the system very early.

“But for me, if you have put in 65 years as a human being, you can go and rest. Whatever it is, we must always ensure that we don’t overwork these individuals, so that they don’t die in the system. They must be allowed to enjoy whatever benefit will be accruable to them after spending years in service.”

For Chief Anthony Dania, judges are entitled to retire before 70 years.

He noted that judges’ welfare should have been prioritised and not the retirement age.

He said: “The current president has extended the retirement age of the judges by five years, which is good. I know that there are some judges who are still strong physically and upstairs even at 75.

“We appreciate the increase in the age of retirement of the judges, but the most important part has not been touched, which is their welfare.

“When some of us were in the university, they did pray for us that we will become judges. This time, no one prays for such again. We don’t envy them at all. There are some judges that buy fuel for their generators by themselves.”

He emphasised that the justice sector needs overhaul. “I think what government needs to do is to give full autonomy to the judiciary. We have three arms of government – the legislature, executive and the judiciary. They require autonomy. Let the judiciary go and defend their budget like the executive and legislature. Let them run their budget themselves,” he declared.

Another lawyer, Mr. Abdulrasheed Ibrahim argued that Justices who will benefit from the age elongation would only be there as passengers to fulfill statutory conditions without ability to make meaningful contribution.

“The present retirement age is adequate for any sincere hardworking member of the court. It’s not only consuming but also tasking emotionally, physically and mentally. There is a pool of qualified,

experienced and healthier professionals from which the vacancies created by their respective retirements can be filed,” he argued