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In May 2019, the Court of Appeal, Abuja, in a unanimous judgement, ruled that “it is not morally right to pay an elected public officer or a political appointee pension and gratuity or severance allowance for holding such an office for three to eight years, as the case may be. It cannot be justified in the context of the present social realities; it amounts to gross social injustice.”
That judgement, which was on the dispute between the Kogi State government and some former members of the Kogi State Local Government Service Commission who served for four years, best describes the renewed moves by the National Assembly to grant life pensions to its principal officers. Last Wednesday, the National Assembly’s Joint Special Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution presented 68 recommendations in their respective chambers. One of the recommendations was that the Senate President and his deputy as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives and his deputy should receive life pensions after their tenure in office.
It reads: “That the House does receive the report of the Special Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution on a Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide Pension for Presiding Officers of the National Assembly, and for Related Matters.”
The eighth National Assembly led by Dr. Bukola Saraki, had attempted to enact the same pension law in 2016. It failed because Nigerians resisted it. It is still not very clear why the lawmakers decided to come up with it again this time. If it failed in 2016, I wonder what makes them think it will succeed in 2022.
The lawmakers may have anchored their quest for life pension on the harbour of Section 84(5) of the 1999 Constitution, which prescribes life pension for ex-Presidents and Vice-Presidents at a rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent President or Vice-President. It is estimated that this life pension for former President and Vice-President gulps over N7.8 billion annually.
The National Assembly members probably believe that, since the other arms of government receive life pensions, the legislative arm should not be an exception. They forget that the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) is a career public servant. He rises from the lower courts to the Supreme Court before being appointed the CJN. His is a permanent job and only retires when he is due for retirement. He deserves pension.
As for former President and Vice-Presidents, the framers of the Constitution probably envisaged that as first and second citizens of the country, they deserve life pensions. They have occupied the highest office in the land and cannot occupy any other lower position. In other words, they have been permanently retired and deserve to be taken care of one way or the other.
On the contrary, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House still have opportunities to contest for other elective positions. Saraki, for instance, is the immediate past Senate President. Now that he is no more in the Senate, he is gunning to be Nigeria’s President in 2023.
Besides, principal officers of the National Assembly hold ephemeral positions. Most times, they are not re-elected after four years. In any case, they are first elected as lawmakers before their colleagues now elect them as their principal officers. This means they are first among equals. You can’t give them life pensions and forget their colleagues. Assuming they even receive life pension as ex-Senate Presidents and any of them now wins the presidential election, what happens? Will the person be receiving his salary as President and life pension as ex-Senate President?
This is partly why the life pension law enacted by some state governments is having hiccups now. Some ex-governors are now senators and ministers. What it means is that they collect life pensions and salaries as well. Riled by this anomaly, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) obtained a judgement, which ordered the Federal Government to recover pensions collected by ex-governors now serving as ministers and National Assembly members. Have the ex-governors returned the money? It is doubtful.
But it gladdens the heart that some states like Zamfara, Imo and Lagos have discovered the futility of this law and decided to abolish it. Recall that it was Lagos State that first enacted the life pension law in 2007. That was during the reign of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as governor. This same Tinubu wants to be President in 2023.
The Lagos law was mind-boggling. It stipulated that an ex-governor of the state was entitled to 100 per cent of the basic salary of the incumbent governor per annum as life pension. In addition, he was also entitled to a house each in Abuja and Lagos, if he had completed two terms in office, some domestic staff and six brand new cars every three years. There were other mouth-watering benefits such as furniture allowance, house and car maintenance allowances as well as entertainment allowance, among many others. Immediately Lagos passed the law, some other states followed. About 21 states have the life pension laws in their statute books.
It is ironical that the National Assembly is in a haste to promulgate the same law some serious states now frown upon. It shows how selfish some of our lawmakers can be. Soon, local government chairmen and councillors will start asking for their own life pensions.
I had expected our lawmakers to continuously brainstorm on how to rescue our country from the rising spate of insecurity. I had thought they would join the chorus for restructuring, which this country desperately needs. I had thought they would not cease from debating on how to deliver Nigeria from the evil effects of high inflation, acute poverty, hunger and unemployment. I had thought that they would fight for retirees who served the country meritoriously but have found it difficult to get their pension as and when due. But they will not because there is no personal gain in these ones.
These lawmakers already have so much benefits accruing to their offices. Their salaries and other allowances, including oversight and constituency project allowances, are huge. If they cannot save enough from these while in office, I pity them.
Our democracy is too expensive to maintain. We should be thinking about how to curb further wastage so as to save our economy. Public service is about selflessness, not selfishness. It is about service and not an avenue to amass wealth. Nigerians, especially the civil society groups, should never allow this injustice called life pension to stand. As the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, put it, life pension law was a bad omen and an illegal law designed to allow a few privileged individuals feed fat on the commonwealth of the people. We must resist it vehemently.
Atiku’s U-turn on rotational presidency
The mood of the nation yearns desperately and equitably for a southern President, particularly a President of South-East descent. Atiku’s desperation to be President is for his personal aggrandisement. The adherence by some of us to constitutional provision is where it favours our personal interest. The country’s interest must be considered first before our personal interest. Anyone with a sense of justice and equity must be shocked to note that within the South are the South-West who have enjoyed the presidency for 16 years as President and Vice-President yet are still arguing ‘insincerely’ and ‘fraudulently’ to take over from Buhari, even at the expense of the South-East who are yet to take their turn. Were the South-East not sacrificed for them when Ekwueme, the most visible aspirant then, was schemed out for Obasanjo at the PDP presidential primary? Is it not the very complaint of greed for power that the South-West have against the North that they are perpetrating in the South against the South-East?
-Edet Essien Esq. Cal. South, 08037952470
There’s too much desperation on the part of some of these presidential aspirants. History has shown that support always comes from the rest of the sub-regions for one to become president. None can be President without the support of the rest. But my grouse is that the South-East’s predicament is mostly predicated on the gang-up of the rest. Atiku and Tinubu must bury their ambitions for obvious reasons. We must also ‘gang up’ and give it to the South-East.
-Ediye James, +2348108095633
Dear Casy, when Tony Wilson dished out his music, titled ‘Politician, man of many words,’ I believe he had the perfidious Nigerian politicians in mind. Mortals whose words send the gullible public into a wild goose chase. Desperadoes who consign morals to the cemetery in order to clinch political power. Zoning as recipe for harmonious co-existence, having benefitted other zones, it is the turn of the South-East in 2023. But the desperadoes are losing sleep. May I, therefore, remind the political chameleons and their quislings that: 1. their intrigues may throw up a Pandora’s Box; 2. when injustice attains a crescendo, even eggs, in reaction, might acquire strength and break stones. The salvation of the Israelites from the Egyptians and victory of David over Goliath are veritable references.
– Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731
Without being told, Nigerians know that it is the turn of the South-East region to produce the next president in 2023 for equity and fairness. Ohanaeze Ndigbo has a role to play now by inviting all lgbo aspirants to roundtable discussions to tell pretenders to step down for contenders in APC and PDP so that we will not miss this opportunity in 2023.
– Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, +2348062887535
Dear Casmir, Atiku should kindly understand that presidency is a thing of destiny not necessarily persistent trials or expenses. Nigerians love him but it seems not to be God’s wish. Right from SDP to PDP, to Action Congress, back to PDP, APC and now PDP again, ill luck all the way. I expect him to pay the price that heroes such as Awolowo, Ekwueme, Aminu Kano, etc, paid by taking it ‘ba kwomi’.
– Cletus Frenchman Enugu, +2349095385215
Casmir, that Atiku is backtracking from the zoning principle is expected. He belongs to the category of ‘unprincipled politicians’ who practise the ‘I, me and myself’ politics. He is trying to be clever by half, since politics is all about who gets what and how. In 2019, as a desperado, he stopped PDP from micro-zoning its presidency to North-West, thereby usurping Tambuwal who was to be used to complete the outstanding term of the N/W region in PDP.
-Mike, Mushin Lagos, +2348161114572
Dear Casy, Atiku’s U-turn on rotational presidency has exposed him as a tribal jingoist and ethnic chauvinist. Atiku destroyed PDP, the platform that made him a king, with his selfish and wicked supporters. Atiku must jettison his political ambition for now and support a southern candidate of Igbo extraction for 2023 presidential election. Those who block the Igbo from leading this country at the presidential level make the Biafran nation inevitable.
– Eze Chima C., Lagos, +2347036225495
Casmir, the distribution of national positions in Nigeria has always been done in respect of federal character principle. Unfortunately, greed and impunity have taken over the minds of some Nigerians who operate in contrast to the known principle. Atiku lost his chance in 2019 when most Nigerians wanted him to take over from the incumbent. So, 2023 should be the turn of South-East to produce the President. For the sake of equity and fairness, every other region should support the South-East in this dispensation.
– Pharm. Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922
