AGF calls for stronger synergy between the National Diet and the Ministry of Justice
Attorney General and Minister of Justice (AGF) Lateef Fagbemi called for greater synergy and cooperation between Parliament and the Federal Ministry of Justice, noting that the judiciary is second only to Parliament in terms of legislative and judicial matters.
He stated this in a speech during the presentation of the 2024 budget to the Senate Judiciary Committee in Abuja on Monday.
He said: “Without sounding sentimental or unscrupulous, I would like to remind this committee of the fact that with respect to lawmaking, judicial matters, the legal profession, and the duties of law-related business, the Federal Department is the Federal Government. I would like to reiterate that among the ministries and agencies with administrative jurisdiction, the judicial body is the closest to the National Diet.
“Achieving the aforementioned therefore requires greater synergy, mutuality of objectives and correspondingly higher support for issues related to the welfare and progress of the Ministry.”
Fagbemi lamented that the 2023 budget allocated only a small amount to the Federal Ministry of Justice, dwarfing the agency's productivity, but called for an increase in the allocation to mark a turning point in the agency's activities.
For the upcoming budget cycle of 2023, the ministry has been allocated N3,321,283,533 as capital budget and N4,688,847,054 as recurrent budget.
“As of now, with less than 30 days to the end of the financial year, the ministry has announced only N617,456,896 as capital expenditure and N2,734,110,775.62 as recurrent expenditure.
“The above has severely constrained the performance of the Ministry in its field of mandate and we are determined to achieve a paradigm shift in 2024. 8,860,880,311.10 naira has been allocated as “2024 budget proposal.''
Reacting, Senator Mohamed Monguno acknowledged the mandate before the ministry and promised that the National Assembly would consider their demands.
Source: dailypost.ng