October 15, (THEWILL) – Now senators or ministers, former governors are clearly in clover. In control of resources (security vote inclusive) of their respective states for the four or eight years in power, they are also entitled to humongous retirement benefits covering everything from accommodation to cars, medicals, entertainment and domestic staff for life. Simultaneously, they receive salaries and other perks of office in their current designation. For most Nigerians, it is a waste of resources especially now that the country is under challenging economic circumstances. Last week, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) went to court to compel the politicians to stop collecting both salaries and pensions. THEWILL wonders what the possible outcome may be. Michael Jimoh reports…
In 2014, Godswill Akpabio signed into law a bill approving the pensions and gratuity of former governors and deputies of Akwa Ibom state he was governor of. The bill stipulated that, in retirement, the two principal officers and their spouses would be entitled to several millions of money covering everything from accommodation to vehicles, medicals, entertainment and domestic staff.
By approving it, Akpabio himself would automatically benefit from the largesse. The ink had hardly dried on the document when his predecessor Obong Victor Attah took the governor head-on. He challenged his successor to come out with the exact figures he’d paid as pensions to the former governor and deputy. Quaking with fury, Attah blamed journalists who he said indulged Akpabio by not asking probing questions concerning the retirement dues.
The N200m Akpabio approved for himself was somewhat on the high side, critics said at the time. But he defended it, insisting that the criticism was laughable because the law had been in existence since 2006. “I know what I am talking about and because I wear the shoe, I know where it pinches. All the former elected governors and their deputies have been enjoying the pension. The pension was first established in 2000 and was further amended with certain provisions added in 2006.”
But Akpabio’s predecessor promptly challenged him: “Publish what you pay me,” Attah thundered in response to his successor. But more tellingly, the architect blamed journalists for cuddling Akpabio, because “you journalists are afraid of Godswill Akpabio and that is why you have always shied away from asking some pertinent questions.”
While that was on, a representative of Nigeria Labour Congress in Uyo called Akpabio “greedy” over the obscene package for governors and deputies in the state.
It is the same expression Nigerians and concerned organisations are now using to describe former governors who have transited from their State Houses to either the Upper House of the National Assembly or have become ministers in Abuja in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration. Their action is that of unconcerned politicians behaving true to type, of caring for themselves at the expense of those they are meant to serve.
Akpabio himself is now senate president a position allowing him legally to collect his salaries and also receive his entitlements as governor. Nearly a dozen of his colleagues are in the 10th Senate: Adamu Aliero, Abubakar Sani Bello, Gbenga Daniel, Ibrahim Dankwambo, Seriake Dickson, Ibrahim Gaidam, Danjuma Goje, Orji Uzor Kalu, Adams Oshiomole, Theodore Orji, Aminu Tambuwal, Aliyu Wammako and Abdulaziz Yari.
In one recent report, it is estimated that all of them would be paid pensions and benefits from their states worth N5.6 billion. From an investigation by The Guardian, each of the former governors now lawmakers will be paid “N100 million yearly, including 100 per cent of the basic salary of incumbent governors, which the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) puts at N11.54 million. Their allowances include furniture, 300 per cent of the annual basic; two brand new vehicles every four years, accommodation anywhere in the country, free medication for the ex-governor and his immediate family, cooks, stewards, utility, drivers and security.
“With what is accruable to each of the 14 Senators every year, they will be receiving N1.4b per annum, making it N5.6 billion for four years apart from their salaries and sundry allowances in the senate.”
Only Daniel has so far exempted himself from the largesse.
With this mind-boggling sums, it was no surprise that, last week, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project went to court to stop the lawmakers from simultaneously collecting their pensions and salaries. Speaking for SERAP, deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare told reporters the organisation is currently seeking “an order of mandamus to direct and compel Mr. Akpabio, nine other senators and Mr. Umahi to stop collecting both salaries and pensions and to return any pensions collected to their respective state treasuries.”
Against the backdrop of crippling economic situation in Nigeria and also with the removal of fuel subsidy, it is unconscionable that the senators are just concerned with “looking after themselves while over 137 million Nigerians are living in extreme poverty.”
To SERAP, “collecting pensions as former governors and salaries while serving as public officers is a flagrant violation of the letter and spirit of the Nigerian Constitution and the public trust.” Therefore, the organisation is also seeking “an order of mandamus to direct and compel Mr. Akpabio, nine other senators and Mr. Umahi to clarify and disclose if they have collected and/or currently collecting both salaries and pensions as former governors.”
Citing the Seventh Schedule to the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended), SERAP insists that “it requires the former governors to stop collecting both salaries and pensions and to return any pensions collected.” In the absence of that, “the former governors would continue to both enjoy life pension packages, and collect salaries as serving public officers, and the travesty and private self-interest would continue. It is a fundamental breach of their fiduciary duties for former governors to collect both salaries and pensions. The alleged collection by former governors of double emoluments is detrimental to the public interest,” adding that “it is a travesty for former governors to be looking after themselves while over 137 million Nigerians are living in extreme poverty exacerbated by the removal of fuel subsidy.”
According to SERAP’s findings, Akwa Ibom, Lagos and Rivers states top the list in the amount paid as “lifelong largesse” to governors and their deputies in retirement. In a bid to reduce the cost of governance Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state three years ago sent a bill to the Lagos State House of Assembly to “repeal the Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension Law 2007), which provided jumbo payment of pension and other entitlements to former governors and their deputies.” The governor’s gesture was also to show “selflessness in public service.”
The members of LSHA under the leadership of Speaker Mudashiru Obasa did not comply with the governor to remove the entitlements completely: they slashed it by 50 percent and also removed the provision of houses in Lagos and the FCT.
Similarly, former Governor Daniel of Ogun state now representing Ogun East Constituency in the senate asked incumbent Governor Dapo Abiodun to suspend his monthly pension. His request was written and dated June 14 2023.
Oluwadare of SERAP thanked Daniel for his commendable effort but “urged him to refund every kobo he has received as pension since he left office in 2011 and work with other members of the National Assembly to enact a law to repeal pension legislations for former governors.”
Commenting on the pensions for former governors who are also receiving pay as senators or ministers, a pensioner described it as “the peak of injustice and that’s what we are fighting for. Many of us have died and some are managing small businesses to survive. The government is very heartless.”
Despite the obvious heartlessness on the part of the former governors, some still say payment of such monies is guaranty against corruption “by ensuring ex-leaders have enough to fall back on after leaving office.”
Such arguments have been punctured with some citing the case of former Plateau state governor Joshua Dariye who went to the slammer for corruptly embezzling N1.162 billion ecological funds. Several more governors have been quizzed by the EFCC on corruption charges. From Lucky Igbinedion of Edo state to James Ibori of Delta, Kalu of Abia and Jonah Jang of Plateau, all of them have, at one time or the other, been the subject of investigation for fraudulently enriching themselves at the state’s expense. Some returned purloined monies, some served time.
In his column Viewpoint in Vanguard of 2021 headlined “Political office holders pay and current economic realities,” Michael Okuwobi spoke the minds of many Nigerians regarding the unequal pay of elected public officials vis a vis the average Nigerian worker. “Nigerians couldn’t hide their displeasure and angst at the 2021 national budget which has its highest allocation to be a whopping N128 billion allocated to Nigerian Legislators at the federal level, a body of 465 people, as against the N46 billion allocated to the healthcare sector, which expectedly should cater for 200 million people.”
Worse still is that “Nigerian legislators are amongst the highest-paid political public holders in the world with a salary structure of about N29 million, including allowances. In a country that has N30, 000 as its minimum wage, it would take 82 years for a minimum wage earner to earn a senator’s one month’s salary. Yet, political functionaries are said to be our servants.”
Continuing, Okuwobi lamented that “it is a fact that the gross earnings of Nigerian legislators are obscenely disproportionate compared to other public sector workers and officials in the country. The biggest source of the opacity in the salary structure of Nigerian legislators is in their allowances. One that is often ridiculed is the “hardship” allowance. Why would a choice to serve your country underwrite “hardship?”
For Adewale Adeoye, a political analyst, it is not even a question of hardship allowance. Paying governors such huge amounts of money is not only wasteful but also not justified. “I don’t think a poor nation like Nigeria should have that kind of law to enrich people who are already rich.”
About the Author
Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.
