Double pay for ex-governors

Daily Trust reports last week revealed that state governments are spending billions of naira in pension payments to their former governors who are also drawing salaries from public purse as serving senators and ministers. While the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) Act does not forbid the former governors from drawing dual remuneration simultaneously, there are […]

Daily Trust reports last week revealed that state governments are spending billions of naira in pension payments to their former governors who are also drawing salaries from public purse as serving senators and ministers.
While the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) Act does not forbid the former governors from drawing dual remuneration simultaneously, there are concerns on the financial implications on the states. Only recently, President Muhammadu Buhari said 27 states were struggling to pay salaries despite collecting N662 billion bailout funds from the federal government last year.
Instructively, there are 21 former governors and deputies in the Senate and President Buhari’s cabinet. The former governors now senators are: Bukola Saraki (Kwara), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Kabiru Gaya (Kano), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Theodore Orji (Abia), Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa), Sam Egwu (Ebonyi), Shaaba Lafiagi (Kwara), Joshua Dariye (Plateau) and Jonah Jang (Plateau).
Others are Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko (Sokoto), Ahmed Sani Yarima (Zamfara), Danjuma Goje (Gombe), Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Yobe), Adamu Aliero (Kebbi), George Akume (Benue) and Isiaka Adeleke (Osun).
Former deputy governors in the Senate are Ms Biodun Olujimi (Ekiti) and Enyinaya Harcourt Abaribe (Abia) while Danladi Abubakar Sani was the acting governor of Taraba state. Former governors now ministers include Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Chris Ngige (Anambra) and Babatunde Fashola (Lagos).
Though, the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) have sanctioned payment of 300 percent basic salary as severance allowances for political office holders on leaving office, various state assemblies had approved a wide range of entitlements for ex-governors and their deputies, however.
Varying details from the states on largesse of former governors and their deputies illustrated pervasive emptying of state resources. For instance, former Lagos state governor, Bola Tinubu, when leaving office in 2007, got the state House of Assembly to approve for a former governor fantabulous lifetime benefits such as two houses, one in Lagos and another in Abuja. Others are six brand new cars replaceable every three years; furniture allowance of 300 percent of annual salary to be paid every two years, and a close to N2.5m as pension (about N30m pension annually). He will also enjoy security detail, free medicals including for his immediate families. Other benefits are 10 percent house maintenance, 30 percent car maintenance, 10 percent entertainment, 20 percent utility, and several domestic staff.
In Rivers, the law provides 100 percent of annual basic salaries for ex-governor and deputy, one residential house for former governor “anywhere of his choice in Nigeria”; one residential house anywhere in Rivers for the deputy, three cars for the ex-governor every four years; two cars for the deputy every four years. In Kano, a former governor and his deputy received 100 percent of annual basic salaries as pension, including a furnished and equipped office, a 6-bedroom house; “well-furnished” 4-bedroom for deputy, plus an office. The former governor is also entitled to free medical treatment along with his immediate families within and outside Nigeria where necessary. It is same for deputy.
The practice is widespread and engulfed other less buoyant states like Gombe, Kwara, Zamfara, Plateau, Kebbi, Ebonyi and Sokoto whose former governors are concurrently drawing remunerations as senators or ministers. Because Nigeria operates a federal system of government, the governors at a point in time emasculated their states House of Assembly to enact pension laws outside what was stipulated for them by the RMAFC. The governors felt, though wrongfully, that like past presidents they are also entitled to benefit from life ex cathedra benefits. Though, arguments have been espoused that the former governors have breached no laws in collecting pension while still serving as senators, we believe it is morally and ethically wrong. It is inexcusable. One cannot be both a pensioner and an active worker at the same time. Since they are actively working at the National Assembly now and earning income, they must forgo the pension money from their cash-strapped states, until they retire in the true sense of the word.
We hereby endorse the action of the coalition of 40 Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) which sued the 36 state governors and 36 state assemblies seeking to nullify the various pension laws enacted by some of the 36 States Houses of Assembly. We must demand greater accountability and interrogate the life style of the political class who somehow manage to flourish and bloom in this economic wilderness.