A visit to any Government House in Nigeria will reveal a life of opulence. The fleet of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) that will assail your eyes will make you think you are in a car mart. Amid this display of plenty, the masses live a life of squalor. The sudden removal of fuel subsidy has worsened their condition. To further insult their sensibilities, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) recently proposed a 114 per cent increase in the salary of political office-holders. The beneficiaries include the President, vVice-President, federal and state legislators, governors as well as judicial officers.
The RMAFC laboured to explain this insensitive proposal. It said basic salaries of these categories of workers were last increased 16 years ago. According to a federal commissioner of the RMAFC, Mr. Hassan Usman, the salary of Nigeria’s President, which he put at about N7 million per annum, is one of the lowest when compared with other Presidents in the world.
Incredible! Outside basic salaries, Nigeria’s President and the governors get almost everything free. That the price of fuel is over N500 a litre is not for them. They don’t spend their personal money to fuel their fleet of cars. When some of them fall sick, they fly abroad for medical treatment at the expense of the state. Many of them generate more money by overtaxing people. But they turn around to embezzle the generated revenue.
There are some other ways through which they siphon public funds. Security vote is one of them. Kickback from contracts awarded to cronies at inflated cost is another. Some of these governors waste these funds on expensive champagne and whisky. Some indulge in travelling in chartered aircraft with a retinue of aides who collect millions of naira as travel allowance. Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State once alleged that his predecessor, Mohammed Abubakar, spent N50 million for each trip to Abuja from Bauchi as governor.
Even when they leave office, many of them continue to milk the resources of the country dry. Most of our former governors initiated life pension laws in their states for themselves and their deputies. Incidentally, it was President Bola Tinubu who first introduced this law when he was governor of Lagos State. The law, enacted in 2007, stipulates that a former governor of the state is entitled to 100 per cent of the basic salary of the incumbent governor per annum as life pension. He is also entitled to a house each in Abuja and Lagos, six brand new cars every three years and some domestic staff and 300 per cent of annual basic salary as furniture allowance, among many other entitlements. In 2021, the state House of Assembly amended the law, reducing the benefits and emoluments by 50 per cent.
Many other states, including Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Kano and Rivers, followed the Lagos example such that, today, many of the former governors of these states collect humongous pensions despite leaving huge debts for their successors. An investigation by The Punch revealed that the immediate past governors who are entitled to this life pension left at least N3.06 trillion debt for their successors. Some of them who are now senators also collect salaries and other allowances. Senate President, Godswilll Akpabio, is a former governor of Akwa Ibom State. His annual pension benefits as former Akwa Ibom governor amount to about N200 million. It will be pure economic sabotage if he still collects this pension while serving as Senate President.
To add insult to injury, the Federal Government reportedly voted the sum of N24 billion for accommodation for members of the 10th National Assembly. Last year, the 9th National Assembly renewed moves to grant life pensions to its principal officers. Nigerians vehemently opposed this move. This notwithstanding, these lawmakers are reportedly billed to collect humongous severance packages.
This is a country where the minimum wage has remained N30,000 per month, an amount that cannot buy a bag of 50kg of rice in today’s Nigeria. Sometimes, this money is not even enough to pay for one’s transportation to and from work. How these poor Nigerians survive remains a miracle. Obviously, they have been reduced to beggars and their lives remain stunted by penury.
The essential duty of any government is to guarantee the welfare and security of the citizens. For the Nigerian government, the reverse is the case. What bothers it most is the welfare and security of government officials. Shortly before he left office last month, former President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated a N21 billion VIP clinic in the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Buhari’s wife, Aisha, gloated that she initiated the project and hoped that the new First Family and those coming after them would enjoy it. Meanwhile, many of the primary health care centres across the country where the masses should access health care are comatose.
Simply put, the level of wastage of public resources in Nigeria is mind-boggling. Many of the governors build infrastructure that add little or nothing to the lives of the citizens. The immediate past governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, must be beating his chest for building an airport in Abakaliki, the state capital. Abakaliki is not a known business hub. Besides, there is an airport in the neighbouring Enugu State. To Umahi, the viability of that airport is of little consideration.
In its 2021 Chandler Good Governance Index (CGGI), the Chandler Institute of Governance rated Nigeria the third worst governed country in the world. The country came 102 out of the 104 countries assessed, ahead of only Zimbabwe and Venezuela. Finland ranked number one best performer. Nigeria scored low in such parameters as leadership and foresight, anti-corruption, robust laws and policies, strong institutions, global influence and reputation and financial stewardship.
Many Nigerians are conscious of this leadership deficit in the country. They were determined to effect a change in the ballot in the last general election. Some staked their lives on it. Unfortunately, the electoral umpire dashed the hopes of these millions of Nigerians with the poor conduct of the elections. Contrary to the wishes of many Nigerians, the same cabal responsible for the sad turn of events in the country was rigged back to power.
Obviously, those who do not have the mandate of the people to rule do things without caring how the people feel. The leadership of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has been asking for better welfare for its members. Government is still dilly-dallying on that. Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have been agitating for their own welfare and a better university environment. Their demands have not been fully met. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has been calling for a reasonable increase in the minimum wage of workers. That has not materialized. But the chairman of the RMAFC was quick to announce 114 per cent salary increase for public office-holders. The man deserves to be sacked and the commission he leads dissolved.
The Presidency has denied approving this salary increment proposal. It described it as fake news contrived to create ill wind for the new administration. In a statement, the President’s Special Adviser (Special Duties, Communications and Strategy), Dele Alake, added that no such proposal had even been brought before Tinubu. The Presidency should go beyond this denial. It should immediately direct that no such proposal should ever be made until such a time that Nigerians are convinced that occupying a public office is no longer an avenue to loot.
Re: Tinubu’s turbulent take-off
Casmir, Tinubu seems to be in a hurry to justify his claim to the Presidency. His sudden removal of fuel’s subsidy without adequate provisions to cushion the impact on suffering masses is most callous, a mark of impunity and an eloquent testimony to lack of confidence in the electorate. The task ahead is so much. He needs to select a formidable team to work with him.
– Pharmacist Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922
Dear Casy, if the current prices of kerosene and cooking gas fluctuate between N800 and above, I do not see the reasons why PMS should be cheaper than the price of a bottle of beer. However, just like Peter Obi rightly posited, you do not remove an aching tooth through the use of force. You either allow it to soften and fall on its own or you apply anaesthetic before pulling it out. What Tinubu did to Nigerians was knocking out our teeth with a sledge hammer, literally speaking, by his forced subsidy removal. Why didn’t he wait till the end of June for the already commissioned Dangote Refinery to start refining? When Jonathan attempted to remove it in 2012, hell was let loose by biased CSOs. Where are the likes of Soyinka, Tunde Bakare, Joe-Okei Odumakin and hypocritical so-called civil rights activists? Why are they not protesting today? Is the subsidy removal now acceptable to them, unlike in Jonathan’s era? Even Buhari and Tinubu who then described subsidy regime as a scam have now agreed that it needs to go. Is it not even curious that the subsidy payment rose from N1.7trn under Jonathan to N6.5trn under “incorruptible” Buhari?
– Ifeanyi, Owerri, +234 806 156 2735
Dear Casy, a proverb has it that any projeny of a snake cannot but be long. When the ex-President, Buhari, told Nigerians that he belonged to nobody but belonged to everybody, those of us, his fans, that voted for him were taken in by what we knew of Buhari of 1984, as military Head of State – a stern, spartan, puritanical character whose words and actions were same and intact! Little did we know that time and political dynamics had consumed the greater chunk of the man’s admirable nature and so we were unleashed with disappointment when he ‘hit the ground’ limping instead of running! When, therefore, emilokan democracy chief came with the pronouncement of continuing with the ‘legacies’ of his predecessor, those with ability to read between the lines knew that we are in for another grind of both Sniper and Otapiapia as could be discerned from the unfolding disappointing events of this administration.
– Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731
Casmir, Tinubu is a huge joke! He unilaterally took all the key decisions that are negatively and harshly affecting the welfare of Nigerians. I wonder what advice he would be offered again! By the time we get to Tinubu’s 20th blunder, we will all be singing and shouting: deliver us, O baba God, deliver us! Take it from me, should the judiciary decide the election in his favour, he will render his advisers and cabinet members redundant! I see signs of a dictator brewing. Blame not Tinubu for the turbulent start he is having, but those who said he should hit the ground running. He misconstrued it to mean any kind of run. Whether forward or backward run. To him, ‘run na run’. Lots of motion but no movement in the positive direction is utterly dangerous as we have now! He has taken us to the gallows.
– Mike, Mushin, Lagos, +234 816 111 4572
Tinubu is aware of the oddities and unwholesome acts that clothe his assumption of the presidential office, and he is desperate to unleash a magic wand that is capable of appeasing despairing and disillusioned Nigerians. And in this direction Tinubu believes that he will be able to achieve a change of mind of the teeming number of Nigerians who believe that Tinubu, in fact, stole the presidential election. Let’s see how far Tinubu goes!
– Edet Essien Esq. Cal South, +234 810 809 5633