GOVERNORS AND THE PENSION LAW

Drawing hefty pension after office is bad for the states and their economies

WHY SHOULD FORMER GOVERNORS CONTINUE TO LIVE IN LUXURY AT PUBLIC EXPENSE AFTER LEAVING OFFICE?

Against the background of a recent court ruling in Lagos directing the federal government to recover life pensions collected by some former governors, criticism has been strident about a group of public officers who are encouraged by a law they enacted themselves to draw sumptuous benefits from the system. As things stand today, many hard-pressed states across the country are spending billions of naira in pension payments to their former governors and deputies. This cannot be allowed to continue.

While Zamfara has repealed the controversial law, many other states have refused to heed the call. Some have even amended the law either to add more beneficiaries or increase the entitlements. Two weeks ago, the Delta State House of Assembly passed the Governor and Deputy Governor Pension Rights and Other Benefits Amendment Bill, which grants pension rights to former Acting Governor, adding to the long list of those to continue feeding fat on the resources of the state after leaving office.

It is particularly noteworthy that since the return to civil rule in 1999, virtually all the states across the nation have been passing scandalous pension laws aimed at giving the governors and their deputies a life of opulence outside government house. The governors, with the aid of pliable Houses of Assembly, have been initiating and getting passed these dubious laws that confer on them the rights to appropriate public money outside office. In most cases, the governors and their deputies are entitled, in retirement, to 100 per cent of what the incumbent is earning, while in other states, the benefits could be as high as 300 per cent.

Although this law differs from one state to another, the essentials are the same: They provide for a former governor a befitting palace in both the state and nation’s capital, Abuja while they are also entitled to furniture allowances and brand new cars every four years at the tax payers’ expense. Their cooks, chauffeurs and security men are also well provided for. There are many questions arising from this state of affair: What should Nigeria do about the financial implications of former governors squeezing their vulnerable states? Can the nation continue to bear this costly and self-inflicted burden?

We feel strongly that a nation with so many challenges–from getting enough to eat to providing shelter and jobs for many of its citizens and to stalling in payment of salaries–cannot sanction the indiscriminate awards of its scarce resources to already wellheeled and comfortable citizens. But this waste goes beyond the former governors to the current ones. The current perception of the populace is that many of our governors have failed to plug leakages and waste, which over the years have become institutionalised. Top officials in some of these poor states are still ferried around in private jets and helicopters mostly to attend unnecessary social events, including marriage ceremonies and birthdays. The ostentatious lifestyles of most governors do not offer logical persuasion to the citizens they govern that their states are broke.

But the immediate challenge is the public resources they now award to themselves after office, using the instrumentality of the law. We do not understand the rationale why former governors should continue to live in luxury at public expense after office. Although states like Lagos and others that implement this self-serving law are using the federal nature of our constitution as an excuse, we must register our strong disapproval of this trend in governance as it simply defies logic and commonsense. It is against the interest of the people.