Senior advocate wants withdrawal of pension for political office holders

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Sebastine Hon, has called for the withdrawal of pension provisions for political office holders at all levels on the grounds that it was immoral for people, who begged to be elected to serve to turn around to constitute liability to the state by drawing pension.

The SAN spoke in Abuja on Saturday while announcing plans for the public presentation, in Abuja on July 12, of his new 1,300-page book, ‘S.T. Hon’s Constitutional and Migration Law in Nigeria’, which discussed, among others, over 4,000 decisions of both Nigerian and foreign courts.

He also faulted the restriction of immunity to leaders of the executive arm of government, and argued that the nation should either abolish the concept of immunity or extend it to the other arms of government.

“It is either we amend the constitution to do away with immunity completely or we extend immunity to the other arms of government. There is no way only one arm of government will be enjoying immunity and the other arms are excluded. If the reason for immunity is to prevent distractions, those in the other arms can also be protected against such distractions.

“So, we should either abandon immunity or extend it to the leadership of the other arms. It is discriminatory and makes the executive too strong and overbearing, thereby eroding governance itself. The executive controls the money, it controls the powers and yet enjoys immunity. Other arms, who ought to be equal partners with you, are denied such constitutional privilege.

Dignitaries expected at the launch of the book, which touched on the core of central theme of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy - Constitutional Law, include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, Court of Appeal President, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami and Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom.