Ex-Governors’Pensions Are Illegal and Immoral

“….the National Assembly cannot validly enact a law that will interfere with the powers of the House of Assembly of any State to enact its law for pensions, gratuities and other-like benefit payable out of the Revenue of a State, so as to prevent a person who was elected into any office under the Constitution at the State level from enjoying the pensions, gratuities and other-like benefit provided for in the applicable laws of the State….”

Bogus Pensions

The average pay-out for all former Governors and Deputy Governors under this scheme in each State is over N1.6 billion annually, and average of over N4.5 billion is used in each State to build and furnish the residential buildings for former Governors and Deputy Governors in the State capitals and in Abuja. Each year, therefore, Nigerian States spent over N130 billion as pension to former Governors and Deputy Governors, amounting to N46.4 trillion since 2010. Yet, Nigerian civil servants' pensions are contributory, and their salaries are usually unpaid for months in many States. By 2015, almost all the States have similar laws, and in many States, nearly all former Governors and Deputies are still alive, drawing the bogus pension.

In most of the laws, such as Lagos, former Governors and their Deputies are entitled to pension for life at the rate of the full salary of the incumbent Governor or Deputy !Governor, in addition to the building expansive houses in the State capital and Abuja, at location of the person's choice, free lifetime overseas medical treatment for all dependants and family members in any foreign country of the person's choice, brand new SUV and escort vehicles every three years, up to 6 full-time pensionable domestic staff, 100% of salary as furniture allowance, 30% of salary as car maintenance allowance, 25% as administration allowance, 10% of salary entertainment allowance, etc. Resistance & Legal Challenges

The resistance against the Governors' Pension laws, is being mounted by civil society organisations through social action as an immoral bad governance law, and through legal action in court on the basis that the 1999 Constitution gives the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) the exclusive powers to set the ‘remuneration' of public officers, including those of the Governors and their Deputies. Therefore, a State House of Assembly has no legislative power to make such law for pension of any public officer, beyond the amount set by the Commission.

While the legal challenges continue to rage in the courts, many NGOs working on good at the State levels continue to mobilise under the Human Rights Agenda Network (HRAN), to raise public outcry against the large pensions that the former Governors allocate to themselves.

In 2014, 75 NGOs asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to determine whether pension and out-of-office allowances of a Governor and Deputy Governor constitute “remuneration” and “condition and welfare of employment” in terms of Section 32 (d) of the 3rd Schedule to the 1999 Constitution and Item 34 of the 2nd Schedule to the 1999 Constitution respectively. Section 32(d) of the Third Schedule provides that the RMAFC shall have the power to: “determine the remuneration appropriate for political office holders including the President, Vice President, Governors, Deputy Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers, Legislators and the holders of the offices mentioned in Section 84 and 124 of this Constitution”.

Item 34 of the Second Schedule Part 1 provides that the National Assembly shall have the exclusive legislative power in respect of “Labour ,… Conditions, Safety and welfare of Labour”.

The key legal question was that if ‘remuneration' includes “pension” or ‘allowances' within the meaning of Section 32 (d) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution, then the State House of Assembly lacks the legislative power Cont'd on page VIII