Repeal ex-governors pension laws

Last week’s newspaper report indicating that 108 former state governors are currently living off their states through pensions and other entitlements they provided for themselves while in offi ce is mindboggling, obnoxious and inconsistent with the Certain Political Offi ce Holders and Judicial Offi cers Remuneration Act. Th is calls for urgent remedy in order to rescue the fl edgling economies of the nation’s second tier of government and its hapless denizens who bear the brunt of the mindless fl eecing of states’ fi nances under the guise of pension to former governors. According to the report, the fi gure will rise to 121 as from the next general election in 2019 when 13 governors will end their second term.

Even those who served as acting governors because of certain circumstances are said to have benefi ted. Th ere are 11 of such persons.

Th e practice, which started in Lagos in 2007, had virtually all former governors (the only exception being former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, who rejected the idea) committing their states to draft laws which entitle them to outlandish pensions as well as opulent burials when they die.

Huge mansions are also constructed for them at public expense since the laws provide for befi tting palaces in both the states’ capitals and in the nation’s capital, Abuja, for governors, while deputy governors are entitled to accommodation allowance equals 300 per cent of their annual basic salary. Th e Houses of Assembly also passed laws that allowed luxuries that include 100% current pay for life, one or two mansions built and furnished by the state, free medical service, fully paid annual vacation, cars and numerous aides. Th is is in spite of the fact that outgoing governors usually pay themselves hundreds of millions of naira weeks before vacating offi ce. It is also scandalous that scores of these former governors, who subsequently become senators or ministers, are still entitled to these humongous entitlements.

Th ere are currently 21 former governors and deputies serving in the Senate and cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari. Th e 19 northern states have a total of 56 governors, while the 17 southern states had 52, during the 16-year period under review.

Eight of the former governors are late. It is instructive that the pension payments and other entitlements drawn by the governors are irrespective of the prescription of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) providing 300 per cent severance for the governors as stated in the Certain Political Offi ce Holders and Judicial Offi cers Remuneration Act. Under the Act, former governors are, like lawmakers, entitled to 300% of their basic salary of N2, 223,705 amounting to N6,671,115 as severance pay. Most of the provisions stipulate the provision of vehicles renewable every three to four years, accommodation at the state capital and sometimes in Abuja, 30-day overseas holiday at the country’s expense and free medical treatment for the former governors and their immediate family members.

Unfortunately, state governors have gone out of their way to commit their respective state legislatures to draft outrageous and anachronistic pension laws that are in clear confl ict with the Certain Political Offi ce Holders and Judicial Offi cers Remuneration Act, which is a federal law.

Th e legal implication of any state law that is confl ict with a federal law is that the federal law will prevail over such state law. Blueprint is, therefore, appalled by the fact that two statutory institutions, namely, state governors and Houses of Assembly, which derive their existence and authority from the constitution, would so fl agrantly and with impunity make laws that are not in consonance with either morality or extant superior laws. It is even more disheartening that former governors are gulping a sizeable chunk of their states’ lean fi nances when these state governments are unable to pay workers’ salaries and pensions of the ordinary folks.

Th us, in the light of current realities typifi ed by the economic recession owing principally to dwindling revenue from oil coupled with the fact that governors rely on bailout funds from the federal government to function, we call for the immediate amendment or outright repeal of the pension laws in states.

It smacks of insensitivity and irresponsibility for former governors to bear an exerting pressure on national development with pension payments and other entitlements draining billions of naira every year from development funds for the states. Th is mindless plunder of scarce resources has lasted long enough and has to be stopped or reviewed. If we must develop as a nation, we have to revive those long cherished culture, values and behaviour that once made us proud to be Nigerians. But it has to start at the top by reducing the intoxicating spoils of high offi ce in Nigeria.

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