By Sonnie Nwosu

The 2025–2026 legal year of the Code of Conduct Tribunal was declared open by the Chairman, Justice Mainasara Ibrahim Kogo Umar on Tuesday 25 November at the Tribunal’s expansive complex in Abuja.

The event which brought together the nation’s legal luminaries had its theme as” Re- engineering moral rectitude through Code of Conduct for public officers” was the first of its kind in the life of the establishment and was introduced by the incumbent Chairman, Justice Mainasara Kogo Umar.

The four hour event began with the welcome address by the Chief Registrar of the Tribunal, Abdulamalik O Shaibu Esq. who was visibly elated with the hosting of the maiden legal year initiative, thanking God for the day’s successful outing.

He attributed the break through to the foresight of the Chairman who thought it worthy to begin each legal year with a solemn declaration to boost the moral of officers and staff of the tribunal.

Hon. Justice Julie Abeiyuwa Anabor, member of CCT in her speech, gave an overview of the challenges and successes of the past year under the leadership of Justice Mainasara Umar, which include paucity of funds and working under stringent conditions due to lack of tools and materials.

She however poured encomiums on Justice Mainasara Umar for his prudent management of the scarce resources to paddle the affairs of the tribunal.

Good will messages were taken from the special guests of honour who graced the occasion in solidarity with the Chairman, beginning with a word of blessing and advice by Hon. Justice Aminu Sanusi, JSC, CON, followed by Hon. Justice Tijani Abubakar, JSC, CON and Hon. Justice Jamilu Tukur, JSC, CON as well as Hon. Mrs. Sa-adiyya Turaki, Executive Secretary, FJSC.

The keynote address was delivered by Hon. Justice Babatunde Adejumo, Chairman, National Justice Institute, on the topic, Re- Engineering moral rectitude through Code of Conduct for public officers.

Former NBA President, Joseph Daudu SAN, Guest speaker 2, spoke on the readiness of NBA to render unflinching support to the Code of Conduct Tribunal in its activities to make the judiciary strong and effective in meeting its objectives in the service of the nation.

In his vote of thanks and declaration of the 2026 legal year open, Justice Mainasara Ibrahim Kogo Umar, Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal renowned for speaking extempore, noted that the welfare of the staff had been his priority as he noticed that most of them have been left on one grade for many years without promotion, so he has elevated many, and their allowances paid fully, by organizing various promotion exercises to benefit the workers and remove their stagnation on one level.

He added that scarcity of working materials like computers and accessories like plain sheets for printing out documents which most times results in going to business centres to produce official documents.

He also revealed that he has increased the departments from three to thirteen and sent many staff to undergo various trainings for efficiency both within and outside the country, some for internship with local and foreign organizations like interpol and other agencies to sharpen their skills on the job in a bid to curb the spread of ill gotten wealth in government officials.

In addition, he averred that the gap between the Abuja office and States is so wide to the point that most staff of the tribunal in the states have not been to Abuja ever since they were employed over the years, so the tribunal had to spread
the offices to the 36 states of the federation to facilitate steady dispensation of cases through the decentralization of the courts which he had initiated.

Justice Mainasara Umar pointed out in an interview with the press that most staff were on adhoc basis and earning as low as 10,000 to 30,000 naira and vowed to end that with the promise of giving them direct employment and pay them well when they are qualified.

He narrated a gory story of their visit to Akure, Ondo State only to find out that the officers were nowhere to be found because of non functioning of the offices, some of which have not been opened for years.

Finally, he asserted that he rejected the increase of his own salary to that of Chief Justices, insisting that the welfare of the staff is paramount to him and that their salaries should be the same with those in the judiciary in the same level.