THE Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) last week drew the nation’s attention to the payment of multiple emoluments to ex-governors, their deputies and other former public officers who are currently serving as legislators or ministers in the present administration. The coalition observed that 21 former governors and their deputies are now drawing fantastic salaries and allowances from their states, after getting their state assemblies to award them huge entitlements and pensions for life, during their terms in the states. In a statement signed by its national chairman, former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, and its secretary-general, Chief Willy Ezugwu, the CNPP called on “well-meaning Nigerians, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and their affiliates as well as the civil society to strongly condemn the double pay for the ex-office holders.”
Describing the former governors as wicked and insensitive to the prevailing economic situation of the country, the CNPP argued that at a time many states are unable to pay salaries to their workers, it demonstrates gross insensitivity for public officials to collect huge salaries/pensions as former governors/deputy governors, and still collect salaries as ministers and members of the National Assembly.
We cannot agree more with CNPP on this issue. This payment of double emoluments to ministers and federal legislators who had earlier served as governors/deputy governors is an unconscionable rape of the public treasury.
It has, again, reinforced the widespread belief that Nigerian public officials get public office not so much to serve as to enrich themselves at the detriment of the people.
At the heart of this unfortunate situation, however, is the impropriety of the former governors getting their state Houses of Assembly to award them humongous salaries and other stupendous allowances for life, for holding the top offices in their states for just four years. This practice, which is common in the states, becomes even more appalling when the ex-governors/deputies are elected into the federal legislature, or are appointed ministers.
The Nigerian Federal legislature is arguably the highest paid in the world today. The full emoluments of its members are so high they have been mostly shrouded in secrecy in the last 16 years, in spite of public agitation for transparency on the issue. From the information in the public sphere, a Nigerian senator is said to earn eight times more that his counterpart in the United States, even though the Nigerian economy is less than three per cent of the American economy.
That the former governors, their deputies and other former public officers have no scruples collecting double emoluments exemplifies the greed of some public officials in the country. Yet, the 1999 Constitution, in Part I, Code of Conduct for Public Officers, declares that:
“…a public officer shall not – (a) receive or be paid the emoluments of any public office at the same time as he receives or is paid the emoluments of any other public office.”
It goes without saying, therefore, that what the former governors and their deputies are enjoying is both illegal and immoral. It is, indeed, a mirror of their stewardship not only as governors and deputy governors.
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) prescribes the payment of 300 per cent basic salary as severance allowance when an officer is leaving office. Emoluments outside this prescription are clearly illegal. Yet, every month, state governments (including those that are unable to pay their teachers and other civil servants) pay out millions of naira in pensions to their former governors and deputy governors.
The huge appetite of the governors can be seen in the scale of what they awarded to themselves. One of the former governors reportedly got the state’s House of Assembly to award to former state governors in the state, two mansions (one in Lagos and another in Abuja which must cost at least N1.2 billion); six new cars replaceable every three years; furniture allowance of 300 per cent of annual salary to be paid every two years; N30 million pension; free medical services for ex-governors and their families; and all kinds of allowances for entertainment, utility, house and car maintenance, personal assistants, stewards, and so on.
Each state has a variation of these emoluments. There is no comparison to these emoluments anywhere in the world. The British House of Commons’ pension is 25 per cent of salary after two terms (10 years). It is even less in the United States.
In Nigeria where the minimum wage is N18,000 a month and governors are complaining about how difficult it is for them to pay it, the double emoluments of the affected officers is indefensible. Certainly, the remuneration of Nigeria’s former and serving political office holders needs to be further discussed before it leads to social unrest. The alarming income gap in Nigeria is a ticking time bomb which can only be ignored at the country’s peril.