By Hajia Zainab Okino
SERAP has asked Malami to use his “good offi ce as a defender of public interest” to institute legal action to challenge the legality of state laws permitting governors to enjoy these emoluments even now that they serve as senators or ministers. Adetokunbo Mumuni, its executive director said “Public interest is not well-served when government offi cials such as former governors and deputies supplement their emolument in their current positions with life pensions and emoluments drawn from their states’ meagre resources, thereby prioritising their private or personal interest over and above the greatest happiness of the greatest majority of the people.
SERAP considers double emoluments for serving public offi cials unlawful, as the granting of those benefi ts takes governance from the arena of public interest, and create the impression that former governors acted contrary to the best interest of the general public” Th ere is no doubt that SERAP is up against powerful people with lots of money to counter or even defeat it in court. However let it be known that this war is ours (all of us) to win for the sake of the country, the generations unborn and survival of democracy and the nation.
It will also be an illusion to think that the battle ahead is less herculean. No, far from it, but thankfully the fi rst step to salvaging our democracy has begun. How can it be when these senators while serving as governors ensured selfserving legislators were in place to guarantee their evil agenda and secure their future while that of most Nigerians in their states remains bleak? As long as laws are made for man and enacted by man, it is not sacrosanct; it can as well be challenged by any organ serving public interest.
Th is also takes us to the relevance of the states’ Houses of Assembly or legislatures. Whose interest are they serving? Th eir governors’ or the electorate? Th e answer is obvious. In a country where every structure of government is seeking for autonomy, only state legislatures have deliberately refused to be extricated from the governors’ vice-grip. During the last attempt at constitutional amendment, these rubber-stamp houses of assembly had the liberty to choose to either remain under the apronstring of the governors or autonomous and be on fi rstline charge which would engender their allocation coming straight to them and not through the states’ purse controlled by the governors.
All they needed to make the proposal a reality was two-third of the states’ legislatures voting in favour of the proposal, but the committee didn’t get the required number of states, having been dictated to by governors on how they should vote. On their own, the state legislators sealed their fate and ceded their powers to their governors. Th is is the genesis of the governors’ absolute and enormous powers which they have utilised well to their own advantage including the determination of what should be due to them in and out of offi ce. Th is is also responsible for the bogus life pension and mouth-watering entitlements approved by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly under Godswill Akpabio and the Kwara State House of Assembly under Bukola Saraki (both are now senators) for themselves even out of offi ce. Akwa Ibom’s is the most bizarre.
Akpabio pressured his legislature to give him life entitlements of over N200 million per annum. Other perks include a new car and utility vehicle once in four years, one personal aide and provision of security for life, at least N5, million or equivalent of $50,000 monthly for his cook, chauff eurs and security guards, a mansion in Abuja or Akwa Ibom, 300% vehicle and fuelling and 300% gratuity of annual salary respectively and free medical services at a sum not more than N100,000 million for him and his wife etc. Th is is insensitive and irresponsible. Why should this man continue to make money as a senator, yet I have not heard him say he’s donating his salaries to the less-privileged. How can he think of justice when he perverts it?
How can a man who is taking so much from his state, who does not know what it means to go to bed hungry make propeople, pro-poor law? Th e NASS should rather amend the laws to make coming to the Senate unattractive for ex-governors who are already collecting some entitlements from their states, and this should be gratis. It is the only panacea for the shameful greed. Nigerians are disappointed that more than two years after the APC came to power, there is still no meaningful change in their lives, and the government itself has failed to change the old structure.
If this government is desirous of good governance and real change here is one place to start—galvanise the citizenry to change our bad ways and encourage CSOs like SERAP to do what they are doing to deepen democracy. How justifi ed is it for one man to take so much from the system. Even if it is legal as some of them would argue, is it morally right? SERAP’s is a positive development in our nation’s recent democratic history.
