Severance package: Like NASS, like state assemblies

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) mandates the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to fix salaries and allowances of those in government including lawmakers. However, in total disregard to the law, the nation’s lawmakers usually approve jumbo severance packages for themselves without recourse to the RMAFC, a development that some state assemblies are keying into. SAMSON BENJAMIN, in this report, examines the trend.

The Kano state House of Assembly recently approved life pension for its speaker and deputy speaker.

The bill, if assented to by the governor, will also provide for foreign medical trips and new vehicles every four years for the duo.

Parts of the Bill states that: “That any person duly elected as speaker or deputy speaker shall, on completion of his term, be entitled to a grant of pension for life by the state, provided that such person was not removed from office through impeachment by members of the House of Assembly.

“There shall be paid pension to persons who held office as Speaker and Deputy Speaker equal to the emoluments of a serving Speaker and deputy speaker, provided that either the Speaker or the Deputy do not hold any paid elective or selective appointment.”

The bill, however, exempts any of the principal officers impeached from the benefits.

It stated that in cases where the speaker or deputy vacates office before the expiration of the term of his office, which is not as a result of impeachment, “he shall be paid pension pro-rata the number of years he spent in relation to his tenure of office.”

“Where the speaker or deputy speaker dies in office before the expiration of the term of his tenure, he shall be paid pension pro-rata the number of years he spent in relation to his tenure of office.

“There shall be provided for the speaker and the deputy speaker a brand new vehicle to be bought by the state government every four years.

“There shall be provided for the speaker and the deputy speaker medical expenses either home or abroad depending on the nature of the illness,” the bill further stated.

Incidentally, the development comes weeks after the Bayelsa state House of Assembly approved a hefty life pension for its members, which was later rejected by Governor Seriake Dickson after public outcries by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and members of the public. 

National Assembly/state assemblies

Interestingly, like in Kano and Bayelsa state Houses of Assembly, the situation is not different at the national level.

The National Assembly had while passing the 2019 Appropriation Bill recently approved a whopping sum of N23.678 billion as severance package for Senators and members of the House of Representatives.

In his presentation, the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Mustafa Dawakin, stated that severance fees of N23.678 billion would be paid to members of the House of Representatives and senators in the 2019 budget.

Similarly, the chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje, in his presentation, stated that the N23.678 billion includes gratuity for outgoing federal lawmakers, their legislative aides and induction programme/inauguration of the 9th Assembly.

CACOL, SERAP fault state assemblies

Speaking to Blueprint Weekend, the executive chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Debo Adeniran, said the current trend in the Houses of Assembly in the country where members legislate and approve for themselves life pension is a dangerous development for the nation’s democracy.

He said: “Approving pension and gratuity for principal officers of the House of Assembly is a dangerous dimension to our national development. First and foremost, public service is supposed to be service to humanity, service to public without expecting direct reward. But the situation has changed, that spirit has changed, now we have situation where people in the public service have used their positions to amass enormous wealth.

“Politics is not a job, but a service. It is the regular jobs that people engage in that should elicit pension and gratuity because they are serving a company or an entity for a period of time during which certain percentages of their salaries would be reserved for them.

“The people that go into politics are supposed to be those who have sources of income and have something they can rely on after leaving office, not those who are trying to make a living.

“And once you are elected into political office, you are not a staff; you are a public official and you should be seen as a shining example of those making contributions that is not based on profit.

“Political office holders don’t deserve the regular payment they are paid. They don’t deserve anything more than sitting allowance. ”

Similarly, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) in a letter dated May 10, 2019, and signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, urged Governor Ganduje to prevail on the lawmakers to subordinate their own interests to the public good, live on fair and equal terms with their fellow citizens, and not to use their legislative powers to convert public resources to their own benefit.

It stated that, “This bill represents law-making in the interest and personal satisfaction of the lawmakers, which flagrantly offends the principles of legal justice and the rule of law. The lawmakers ought to subordinate their own interests to the welfare of the people of Kano. By passing the life pensions and medical trips abroad bill, the lawmakers have invariably ‘bought at their own sales’, and violated their sacred trust.

“This bare desire by the lawmakers of the Kano state House of Assembly to pass a bill to award to themselves life pensions, foreign medical trips and brand new vehicles every four years is oppressive, and violates the obligation of impartiality to the people of Kano they are elected to serve and the ideals of fiduciary government. The bill, proposed by Baffa Baba Dangundi, is a textbook case of diversion of public resources to private purposes.”

“Rather than passing bills to divert public resources for personal benefits, the lawmakers should pass legislation that will urgently address the chronic problem of over three million out-of-school children in Kano (the highest in Nigeria) and ensure immediate payment of outstanding pensions and workers’ salaries, given that your government has already received N21.7 billion from the Paris Club debt refund, and also reportedly received in 2018 N84.2 billion from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).

“If assented to, the bill would lead to a misuse of trust property and threaten to affect the welfare of the people of Kano by diverting public funds from development and provision of access to quality education, clean water and healthcare to the personal benefits of members of the House of Assembly.”

National assembly under fire

Like their colleagues at the state level, many Nigerians have expressed shock and dismay at the N23.7 billion severance package for 9th National Assembly lawmakers in the face of what they called pervasive poverty in the land.

Those who spoke with Blueprint Weekend noted that the “hefty” pay-off showed that the lawmakers were insensitive to the plight of millions of Nigerian who they say have been pauperised by the huge salaries the lawmakers take home.

The United Progressive Party (UPP) national publicity secretary, Uche Akpapta, said the action of the lawmakers could not be justified, given the current state of the economy.

“It is scandalous that they are giving themselves this mouth-watering severance package without passing through the body set up by government to fix the salaries and allowances of public officials, including those at the National Assembly, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

“The Buhari administration has been complaining about padding of budgets. This is an indication that what the government has been saying all along is true. Giving themselves a severance package of N23 billion is the most scandalous thing this set of legislators has done. They are so shameless. I am thoroughly disappointed by this development,” he said.

In the same vein, a former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu, described the action of the lawmakers as “selfish.”

He said: “In my view, this set of legislators is selfish; they are more concerned about their own welfare, than that of those who elected them and the nation at large. The problem between the leadership of the National Assembly, particularly the Senate, and the executive arm of government has made things to go the way they are not supposed to go under normal circumstances.

“It is a sort of a cat and mouse relationship. But, by the first week of June, when the 9th National Assembly would have taken over, things will improve and we are going to see more sanity in the National Assembly. That is my hope.

“But if that is not the case, they are going to face the wrath of the people, because Nigerians have indicated that they are no longer going to tolerate this sort of thing. Of course, I am happy they passed the N30, 000 monthly minimum wage; that is a good development. But that does not mean that the national coffers should be emptied.

“How many years have some of them served? Many of them have not served for more than four years or eight years. Nigerians who served for about 25 years are still struggling to get their pension or gratuity.

“The NLC has been calling for social justice. I don’t think there is any social justice in what they (National Assembly lawmakers) are doing. It is not only the National Assembly. State assemblies, like Bayelsa and Kano, have been approving a similar mouth-watering severance package for themselves. This is not patriotic.”

However, a former vice-president of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Chief Bisi Ogunjobi, said the issue should be examined from the viewpoint of how the severance of the Seventh Assembly and those before it were determined.

“If they go beyond what was done for the Seventh Assembly, then we can say there is something wrong. But, for now, I don’t know how that of the Seventh Assembly was determined and what they got as severance package,” he said.

‘Severance package outrageous, but legal’

An Abuja-based lawyer and founder, Egalitarian Mission Africa, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, in an interview with journalists, said the figure is absolutely outrageous even though it may be within the law.

He said, “The truth must said, I am a lawyer and despite our condemnation, it is legal. We need to note that Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission is empowered by the constitution to determine such allowances to be given to political office holders with regards to present realities.

“Thus, the payment of severance package to lawmakers is in accordance with the law. See OMOKOLO & ORS V. RMAFC & ORS (2017 CA).

“However, considering the present realities, the payment of over N23.7 billion as severance package to lawmakers is not desirable and the law should be amended considering the GDP of the country,” he said.

Another lawyer, Barrister Hammeed Adi, shares Ajulo’s view, saying the law backing the payment of outrageous severance package was made out of selfishness.

‘’The resolution of the Senate concerning the payment of such outrageous severance package confirms the belief of many Nigerians that our leaders are selfish.

‘’If the decision of the Senate is not selfish and wicked, then I don’t know what it is. How can you tell me that in the midst of poverty and lack such insensitive action is not wickedness against the people? I disagree,” he said.

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