{"id":8139,"date":"2013-08-11T07:40:14","date_gmt":"2013-08-11T07:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/the-senate-bill-on-life-pension-for-nass-officers\/"},"modified":"2013-08-11T07:40:14","modified_gmt":"2013-08-11T07:40:14","slug":"the-senate-bill-on-life-pension-for-nass-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/the-senate-bill-on-life-pension-for-nass-officers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Senate bill on life pension for NASS officers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A few weeks ago, the Senate was reported to have voted unanimously in favour of the recommendation that principal officers of the National Assembly\u2014NASS\u2014 should be on pension for life; by inserting a new subsection (5a) to Section 84 of the Constitution which reads thus: Any person who has held office as President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall be entitled to pension for life at a rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first concern here is that the very fact that the legislators voted overwhelmingly for the recommendation shows that the NASS is simply flying a kite in the hope that if it sails through, a similar recommendation would be processed for all the lawmakers in the country. With this sort of legislative odium oozing out of the hallowed chambers of the NASS, it is difficult to fathom the type of human beings now in the saddle of the nation\u2019s apex lawmaking organ. I do not know why it simply did not occur to the lawmakers that it is an embarrassing, self-serving, immoral, legislative frolic for a law like that to be contemplated by the elected lawmakers of the country.<\/p>\n

In the first place, it is not clear whether the life pension recommendation being enacted into law will apply to all past principal officers of the NASS without qualification. Not that it matters, anyway. But for the sake of insight into the character of the nation\u2019s legislators, if the law will apply to all without exception, assuming that it will ever come to pass, you want to know whether the past principal officers disgraced out of office for misbehavior would be entitled to such largesse? In other words, will past officers like Salisu Buhari, Ghali Na\u2019 Abbah, Patricia Etteh, Dimeji Bankole; a well as Adolphus Wabara and Evan Enwerem be entitled to such a life pension package, if it comes to be backed by law, since they had all served as principal officers of the NASS? This is just one aspect of the concern.<\/p>\n

Another problem why the life pension bill swims against the tide is that, if a referendum of genuine eligible voters is conducted today, well over 99 percent of Nigerians will not only set the document bearing the proposal of life pension for principal officers of the NASS ablaze, they will ask for the legislative job to be a part time affair. No one wants a full time legislative assembly anymore in Nigeria. In many countries of the world, lawmaking is a part time business, and it is for credible, focused, and patriotic citizens who have clearly distinguished themselves in visible occupations, not hungry and avaricious jobbers.<\/p>\n

Besides, a large proportion of lawmakers are retirees from federal public service who are quietly earning their pension. The serving Senate President, Senator David Mark, for instance, retired from the Nigerian Army in the 1990s, having served as a military governor of Niger State and the Minister of Communications. What does such a man want legislative life pension for; in a country where millions of people are jobless and hungry? The university lecturers are on strike for over one month now to get the government in which he is number three citizen to honour a five year old agreement. Medical doctors have given up on the nation and have migrated to Saudi Arabia and other countries of the world where their services are valued and rewarded; countries where legislators are part timers, not a burden and conduit pipes on lean national resources.<\/p>\n

More annoying still is that legislators are angling to put themselves on life pension in a country where the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has warned that government might not be able to pay staff salaries to workers from October this year. What are the legislators doing about this? Why are the lawmakers not sweating over the wanton destruction of lives and property being perpetrated daily by the Boko Haram?<\/p>\n

The world has been concerned that Nigeria spends over 75 per cent of its annual budget on recurrent expenditure maintaining expensive legislators, political appointees, and over-bloated bureaucracy. The world is also concerned that Nigeria ranks about the highest in official graft in the global chat of corrupt countries; even as it slumbers under the yoke of a huge loss of oil revenue to thieves and vandals. Businesses are closing down frequently because of unbearable over head arising from huge infrastructure deficits. Hundreds of Nigerians are killed daily in road accidents owing to dilapidated road infrastructure. The country is in darkness most of the month, whereas you need electricity to power industries and enterprises, to create jobs and happiness for the people. All these are not of interest to the senators who would prefer to be absented minded when an obnoxious bill legitimizing the girl child abuse in unwholesome conscripted marriages was passed into law.<\/p>\n

It is not unlikely that the lawmakers at the National Assembly now see themselves as special citizens who conned the electorate to vote them into office for their own self-aggrandizement. It is not also unlikely that this lamentation about the high-handedness and shameless selfishness of the nation\u2019s legislators will go unattended. But let it be on record that many have warned the powers-that-be of the dire consequences of taking the people for granted. It is sheer selfdeceit to suppose that the people will allow themselves to be taken for a ride for ever.<\/p>\n

My point is that it will serve everybody well and ensure the reduction of insult on the intelligence of Nigerians for the lawmakers at the National Assembly to throw away the bill on life pension for the principal officers of the nation\u2019s apex legislature. There are more important things to engage the attention of serious-minded lawmakers, not an outlandish, self arranged personal retirement benefits of the legislators.<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: National Mirror Newspaper<\/p>\n

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