Gratuitous self-reward

Details of the severance allowances are contained in the obviously extra-budgetary and non-statutory remuneration package put together by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).According to the reports, with effect from the day they leave office, which is May 29, 2015, President Jonathan would be entitled to 300 percent of his annual basic salary,put […]

Details of the severance allowances are contained in the obviously extra-budgetary and non-statutory remuneration package put together by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
According to the reports, with effect from the day they leave office, which is May 29, 2015, President Jonathan would be entitled to 300 percent of his annual basic salary,put at N3, 514,705. His severance allowance will therefore amount to N10, 544,115. President Jonathan’s severance package is without prejudice to his other entitlements specified by the Constitution as a former president.
The severance package for Vice President Sambo is similar, at 300 percent of annual basic salary put at N3, 031, 572.50, meaning that his severance allowance would be N9, 094, 717.50. Like Jonathan and Sambo, senators would equally get 300 percent of their annual basic salaries as severance allowances. Senators who are not returning to the National Assembly would collectively receive a sum of N462.0019 million at the expiration of their tenure on June 5, 2015. This amounts to N6, 079, 200 each. About 76 senators are not returning, either because they did not stand for re-election or they lost in their bids to return.
In the House of Representatives, about 290 members are not returning to the 8th National Assembly to be formally convened after its proclamation by incoming President General Muhammadu Buhari on June 5, 2015. Each of the members, according to details of the severance package, would get N5, 955, 637.50.
Ministers, on the other hand, would collectively receive a total of N253, 967, 215.50. There are forty-two ministers in Jonathan’s cabinet, each getting between N6, 079, 200 and N5, 872, 740.
About 133 presidential aides, comprising special advisers, senior special assistants and special assistants would collect a total of N7, 754, 207, 125, each calculated at 300 percent of the annual basic salary.
Take home pay and severance allowance in case of termination of political office holders are codified and set out in their appointment letters.  To approve financial grants outside these provisions simply because a public officer is in a position to do so smacks of arbitrary use of privilege that cannot stand legal scrutiny. These unconscionable abuse and misapplication of resources has cast Nigeria’s democracy as one of, if not the, costliest in the world due to the large and amazingly unproductive number of political office holders in the last 16 years. The bloated circle of presidential aides which is often replicated in the states by governors is abuse of executive privilege.
The Constitution, which prescribes a minimum of forty-two ministers, one each from the 36 states and other geographical interests, is partly to blame for this. The provision needs to be amended to provide a more realistic profile of the federal cabinet.  The number of presidential aides is ridiculous; their utility to the overall needs of the nation is doubtful.  A much leaner cabinet stands a better chance of making more impact and delivering good governance.
Another flaw of the severance package is its automatic nature, no matter what quality of work done, and how long in the service of the nation at the pleasure of the president. Civil service rules require that an officer serves for a minimum of ten years to be eligible for gratuity and fifteen years to qualify for pension. A sensible criterion along that line needs to be applied to political office holders, elected and appointed, in the consideration for severance benefits at public expense.
It is sickening that despite the provisions for them in statutory rules, public officers would award themselves additional hefty severance allowances in a country where civil servants like teachers who served for thirty-five years or more queue, sometimes die in waiting, for their paltry retirement benefits that may never come.
If the rationale for introducing severance allowances for political office holders was to discourage stealing of public funds because of the knowledge they would be rewarded at the end of their tenure, this has failed to serve the purpose.  As many reports have shown, the level of plundering of government coffers intensified in the last six years.