As
we learn more about the pension benefits state governors have
legislated for themselves, one cannot help but wonder how a civilised
people would have allowed themselves to be so blatantly robbed by a
bunch of marauders.
Leaders of the world’s richest economies
will be aghast at the pension packages our governors have legislated
for themselves. Even more incredible is how a civilised people would
have allowed this to happen unchallenged, in a supposed democracy. There
is nowhere in the world where public officials retire on the same
salary as the incumbent when they leave office, otherwise you could have
a situation where the government would be paying up to five or six
individuals full salaries for a role that only one person is performing.
In
the United Kingdom for instance, former prime ministers are entitled to
just half their salaries when they leave office. Interestingly, Gordon
Brown waived his right to this pension package when he left office,
considering it to be too generous compared to other public office
holders, opting instead for a much reduced pension package. Even the
United States, the world’s richest economy, does not pay its former
presidents the full salaries of their incumbents. It is not done
anywhere in the world.
Even more staggering are the benefits
some of these governors have arrogated to themselves – a house in Abuja,
another in Lagos, servants, gardeners, a fleet of cars that are changed
every three years, a regiment of police and the Department of State
Services officers to guard them and their families for life, free
medical treatment abroad and a host of other monetised allowances for
furniture, cars, utilities and many more allowances that far exceed
their salaries. There are no words to describe this greed and banditry.
The wickedness of these people is unbelievable, in a country where their
fellow countrymen sleep under bridges; where hospitals lack vital
equipment; where many pensioners die waiting many years for their meagre
pensions to be paid; and civil servants are owed many months in unpaid
salaries.
It is foolhardy however to believe that the
president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, can change all of this on his own
without the help of the masses. The stakes are high and corruption will
fight back in the form of threats of impeachment. Buhari will do well to
appeal over the heads of legislators direct to the people and Nigerians
on their part must be ready to come out in peaceful demonstrations to
force the legislators to change the laws that make this banditry
possible.
This callous treatment of the people by a few cannot
continue whether at national or state level. It was puzzling reading the
account of the embattled Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly
narrating how he and his colleagues were each given N200, 000 of state
money for transport by the governor when they paid him a visit. This was
narrated as if it was normal behaviour. In a sane country the Speaker,
his colleagues and the governor will be in prison by now.
Like a
pack of wolves to the prey, governors have muscled their way into the
Senate in large numbers, no doubt to continue feeding their greed at the
nation’s expense. They will yet again collect as senators, all the
allowances they will receive as ex-governors. So, in effect, they will
be paid double allowances for the same expense; furniture, domestic
staff, car allowance and so on, including allowances for accommodation
even though they are entitled to free houses in Abuja as ex-governors.
In addition, they will be paid as senators a package believed to be in
excess of N30m a month, the highest remuneration of any lawmaker in the
world. Not even the world’s richest economy, with a GDP 35 times that of
Nigeria, pays its legislators this much. Our legislators take home in a
month more than twice what permanent secretaries and our army generals
receive as gratuity after 35 years of public service.
Being in
public office in Nigeria is like winning the lottery. It is no wonder
they kill to get into office. If you imagine for one moment a state with
four surviving ex-governors, by the time the state finishes paying
these individuals and the incumbent, there will be no money left for
anyone else. Sadly, these stupendous benefits are believed to be
widespread in the public sector and in hundreds of our parastatals,
especially revenue generating agencies, where board members arrogate to
themselves outrageous benefits and pensions packages. They do it because
they can; sheer theft clothed in legality!
Although the
searchlight is mainly on the Federal Government, state governments are
believed to be the citadel of corruption in Nigeria. The president-elect
must resist any attempt by governors to impose ministerial nominees on
him. He must use the best people for the job wherever he can find them.
Apart from perhaps a few progressive governors, the majority of state
governors have served Nigeria poorly. A state like Delta State, for
instance, at the height of the oil boom was receiving revenue
allocations in excess of $100m a month; revenue allocations that far
exceeded the income of many African countries that have to maintain
national armies. With the resources at the disposal of oil rich states
like Delta, we should have a Dubai or a Singapore in Nigeria. Instead,
state funds were squandered between the governors, the state lawmakers,
traditional rulers and the so-called elder statesmen who pretend to mean
well for Nigeria when all they really care about is their belly. Yet,
these governors are feted every day with meaningless awards by their
cohorts in the private sector, when they should really be in the dock
for the mismanagement of public funds. They build schools they don’t
send their children, roads they don’t use and hospitals where people go
to die because of lack of equipment.
The mantra of the Nigerian
Army as they regained territories previously overrun by Boko Haram is so
apt for the whole of Nigeria at this juncture in our history – “NEVER
AGAIN”!. This slogan should be embedded in our national flag to depict
the change Nigerians expect from the incoming government. We cannot
continue a system that exists primarily to serve the interest of the few
at the expense of the masses. We cannot have a system of governance
that is based on patronage where the best people cannot get access to
jobs in the Civil Service because they do not have a ‘godfather’. We
must look again at the governance structure and processes in both
federal and state tiers of government that make it easy for corruption
to strive.
The harrowing plight of the hundreds of women and
children that were rescued from the Sambisa Forest was distressing;
children that will never know a father or a brother because of a
government that was asleep on the wheel.
- Emmanuel Nwachukwu is an international business consultant based in London
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