Late last month, as a
section of the country awaited the triumphant return of James Ibori, an
ex-governor of Delta State, who was jailed, incidentally, in the UK for his
egregious looting of his state’s treasury while in office, the Nigerian media
landscape was abuzz with stories about the mind-boggling salaries, allowances
and other perquisites of office that elected officials and state functionaries
in the country enjoy.
According to the report in Vanguard newspaper,
forty-seven former governors from 21 states in the country, draw as much as
N37.4 billion from the public treasury. There are twenty-one serving
senators currently receiving pensions from government as ex-governors and
deputy governors. There are also ministers in the current government who are
receiving pensions as ex-governors. Of this group, Rotimi Amaechi, the minister
of transportation stands out. I shall return to this. If you consider the fact
that Nigerian senators and other elected officers are among the highest paid,
if not the highest paid, in the world, then you can appreciate the outrage.
Of course, this story is
not new. During the political transition two years ago, many state governors
hurriedly signed or amended existing laws to give themselves fantastic
pensions. Let’s take two examples: In 2014, Godswill Akpabio, now a
“distinguished” senator, while leaving office as governor of Akwa Ibom State,
passed the Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law which entitles a
former governor and spouse in the state up to N100 million a year, and a former
deputy governor and spouse up to N30 million, for medical treatment. If this is
not slush fund, I don’t know what it is. You can be sure that whether Mr.
Akpabio and his spouse are sick or not, they will pocket 100 million Naira a
year meant for their medical treatment. So, why would Mr. Akpabio, as governor,
be interested in fixing the health sector in his state when he can rob the
state to take care of himself and his family indefinitely?
Akpabio’s law provides that
as ex-governor, he and his deputy will receive pensions equivalent to 100%
of annual basic salaries of the incumbent governor and deputy, one house not
below 5-bed maisonette in either Abuja or Akwa Ibom for the former governor and 500%
annual basic for the deputy for accommodation. For transportation, he and
his deputy will get one car and one utility car every four years. Add to
this, a furniture allowance, every four years, that is 300%
of annual basic salary. He will receive N5 million and his
deputy gets N2.5 million for domestic staff. Akpabio is not
done. He will get a car maintenance allowance that is 300% of annual
basic salary, entertainment allowance, 100% of annual basic salary,
utility: 100% of annual basic salary, and severance gratuity: 300% annual
basic salary.
The Lagos State Governor
and Deputy Governor Pensions Law of 2007, endorsed by ex-governor Babatunde
Fashola, now minister of power, works, and housing, is even more lucrative. It
provides that a former governor is entitled to six new vehicles (three cars, two
back-up cars and one pilot car) every three years and a house in Lagos and
another in Abuja, the country’s most expensive housing markets. His deputy gets
five vehicles every three years. They and their family members—you only need to
invoke the governor’s name to qualify as a family member—are entitled to
unlimited free medical services. Their pension will be the equivalent of 100%
of annual basic salaries of the incumbent governor and deputy.
There is a furniture
allowance for these former “excellencies” that comes to 300% of their
annual basic salary every two years. House maintenance: 10% of annual
basic salary. Interestingly, these former executives are entitled to a
cook, steward, gardener and other domestic staff who are pensionable. Their
security will consist of two State Security Service (SSS) operatives, one
female officer, eight policemen (four each for house and personal security) for
the ex-governor; one SSS operative and two policemen (one each for house and
personal security) for the deputy. There is an additional 25% of annual basic
salary for their personal assistant, car maintenance: 30% of annual basic
salary, entertainment: 10% of annual basic salary, utility: 20% of annual basic
salary, etc.
There is no name for this
other than robbery. That it is sanctioned by the state makes it no less
grievous than armed robbery. Of course, state robbery has no party affiliation.
As it is for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) so it is for the
opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP). This robbery unites our political
elite, no matter their party, religious or ethnic affiliations. Once they are
in power, they use the instrumentality of the state to feed fat, robbing their
states and the nation at will, and covering up their crimes in the name of the
law.
Make no mistake, state
robbery is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria. It dates to the period before
independence when the political elite who opposed British colonialism saw
themselves as heirs to the throne of the departing colonialists. Therefore,
after independence, very little was done to shake off the feeling of
entitlement and bridge the gap that existed between the rulers and the ruled.
The emergent rulers at
independence didn’t see themselves as the representatives of the exploited and
oppressed people of the newly independent nation but ordained successors and,
therefore, entitled to all the British colonialists enjoyed, and more! That
tradition has continued to the present. Essentially, what happened was that in
the name of independence, the country replaced one form of oppression with
another. But in exploiting Nigeria, even the colonial masters applied
enlightened self-interest. They knew when to draw the line. They knew they had
to keep the oppressed alive; not so their local successors.
I have given this
background to show that we are currently up against a deeply ingrained
worldview perpetuated by a mindless elite that feels it is God-sent and
entitled to everything that the state can offer. Political office in Nigeria is
essentially a feeding trough. While this robbery is going on, states refuse to
pay salaries and pensions of citizens, some of whom put in thirty-five years of
public service; infrastructure where it exists, continues to decay at alarming
rate because, thanks to corruption, it wasn’t built to standard.
Back to Amaechi. He was
speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly from 1999 to 2007 and governor of
Rivers State from 2007 to 2015. He most likely collected a sweet severance
package as ex-speaker, that is, if he is not receiving outrageous pension. He
is collecting mouth-watering pension package as ex-governor and currently
collects salary, allowances and other perks of office as “honourable” minister
of transportation.
Of course, Amaechi is not
alone. Take ex-president Goodluck Jonathan. Let’s ignore his public jobs
as education inspector, lecturer, and environmental protection officer, before
he was elected deputy governor of Bayelsa State in 1999. So, he is entitled to
pension as deputy governor, governor, vice-president and president. It is probably
the same for the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari. He is an ex-military
administrator, ex-minister, ex-head of state, and retired general in the
Nigerian Army. Same for David Mark, also an ex-military administrator,
ex-minister, retired army general, ex-president of the Nigerian senate and
still a sitting senator.
Relying on the law, as
Bukola Saraki, president of the senate, wants us to do, these public officers
are entitled to everything the state can offer. As one of the beneficiaries of
this state-sanctioned robbery, Saraki told Vanguard, in response to
public misgivings, that he could not act otherwise since he was acting within
the provisions of the law. He said his “pension entitlements were being used
for charity, especially for educational purposes, which he noted, have
positively impacted the needy in his state”. So, in the name of pension and the
law, you rob your state of money that ordinarily should have gone to education
and you give back the money as charity. Quite ingenious!
Do we still wonder why
Nigerian politics is a do or die affair or why a governor today a minister or
senator tomorrow? It is all about the politics of state robbery. In
understanding the current decay, poverty and underdevelopment in Nigeria, the
question we should ask is: what kind of system makes it possible for anyone to
serve as governor for four or eight years and live a lifetime of luxury while
citizens of his state wallow in penury. That system needs to be uprooted.
What is to be done? All of
us victims must rise in one voice to bring a quick end to this exploitative
state. The mission of this generation of Nigerians is to continue the glorious
struggle of their forebears, overthrow the current order, retire, and consign
these vampires, posing as statesmen, to the garbage heap of history!
