With life pension for its officers, the National Assembly returns to its old habits of fending mostly for itself.
The National Assembly recently completed another amendment to the 1999 Constitution with the approval of life pension for anybody who has held office as President or Vice-President, Senate President or Deputy Senate President, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The amended clause reads: "Any person who has held office as President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall be entitled to pension for life at a rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, provided that such a person was not removed from office by the process of impeachment or for breach of any of the provisions of this Constitution."
While we recognise that the clause is inclusive of the president and vice-president as well as governors and their deputies, it is obvious that the essence of the law is to provide pension for the National Assembly principal officers. And to be sure, we are not opposed to the principal officers of the legislature enjoying pension when heads of the executive and judiciary enjoy similar benefits. However, to propose such benefits at the expense of more pressing constitutional matters portrays our lawmakers as self-serving. It is even all the more galling that making laws to secure their own future has become the latest fad in the country for public officials.
With falling revenue occasioned by fall in prices of crude oil, federal and state governments have been urging the citizens to sacrifice. And there are increasing signs that tough times are ahead for many Nigerians. The move by the National Assembly to put an additional wage yoke on suffering Nigerians is therefore clearly antithetical to such mantra of sacrifice. When you juxtapose that with reports that our federal lawmakers are among the highest paid in the world, one cannot but come to the inescapable conclusion that the National Assembly is far removed from the reality of the Nigerian condition.
To compound the situation, the emerging trend is for governors and their deputies to retire to the National Assembly after serving out their terms of office. Even at that, practically all of them already enjoy life pension from the states they governed. Should such persons become president or deputy president of the Senate, speaker or deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, the implication would be one person enjoying double pension. In the case of some of them that are retired military officers, they could be receiving pensions from as many as three institutions. Such is not only a needless burden on the taxpayer but an unacceptable assault on public sensibilities.
Considering the fact that the proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution still require the concurrence of the houses of assembly in no fewer than 24 states of the federation, there is the temptation that principal officers at that level might want to include themselves. The bigger fear is that once this amendment passes and it is implemented, we could come to a period when every lawmaker in Nigeria would demand for life-long pension.
As representatives of the people, members of the National Assembly should strive to always make laws that would win them the support and confidence of the people. For an assembly whose reputation has had more than its fair share of financial scandals, it is not too late for members of the present National Assembly to retrace their steps and prove that they are different. Our federal lawmakers should withdraw the offensive clause and, for once, prove that they can think beyond themselves.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/at-the-expense-of-the-people/203341/#.VPiU1EikgwE.twitter- Ikhide
- Ikhide
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