Nigeria: No Life Pension for Nass’ Presiding Officers

Expectedly, the moves by the current National Assembly (NASS) to provide life pension for its presiding officers has continued to generate reactions with most Nigerians describing their intent as morally wrong, constitutionally untenable and utterly self-serving.

Although there are 67 bills each on all the items being proposed for amendment, two items-immunity for heads of legislature and judiciary and, the life pension for presiding officer of NASS, deserve critical scrutiny.

In the reworked 1999 constitution awaiting members’ voting, the National Assembly seeks to grant life pension to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as their deputies just as they propose immunity to the presiding officers and the judiciary.

The plan to provide life pension to presiding officers of the National Assembly is part of the recommendations of the Senator Ovie Omo-Agege- led Joint Special ad hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, which laid its report containing 68 recommendations in the two chambers, recently.

Barring last minute change of plan, the two chambers will vote on the amendment between Tuesday, 1st March and Thursday March 3rd, 2022. While the Senate has scheduled voting on the amendment for Tuesday, members of the House of Representatives are to consider and adopt the recommendations on Wednesday and Thursday.

The latest proposition for life pension to NASS’ presiding officers is coming at a time Nigerians are outraged at the payment of life pensions to some former governors and their deputies in states where the state Assemblies made such vexatious provisions. We are aware of the fact that section 84(5) of the Nigerian constitution guarantees life pension for all former Presidents and Vice-Presidents, a cost that gulps about N7.8billion annually. Rather than expand it, the lawmakers should consider expunging this section.

Clearly, the National Assembly is on a mission to please its current leadership who will be the first beneficiary of this anti-people policy. Why should the nation pay presiding officers life pension when millions of youths are roaming the streets unemployed and largely unemployable owing to faulty education system because the sector suffers poor funding?

Most Nigerians see the National Assembly, especially the Senate, as not only a place which is gradually being turned into a retirement ground for former governors but also a waste of resources that should be scrapped.

This latest proposal for life pension to principal officers is a way of telling Nigerians with such a notion that not only has the Assembly come to stay, its officers will continue to sap the nation dry till they breathe their last. Only recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that the federal government’s gross debt profile will grow by 92.11 percent from N70.85trillion in 2022 to N136.11tn in 2026.

We have consistently borrowed to fund capital projects and sometimes, address recurrent needs so why should we succumb to the whims and caprices of a selfish set of people whose action will ultimately increase the nation’s expenses, no matter how insignificant? Interestingly, this fresh move by the federal lawmakers has continued to generate reactions with some Nigerians asking them to perish the thought.

In our considered opinion, a life pension for presiding officers of the National Assembly is not only illogical, it is self-serving and should not be allowed no matter the pressure on the lawmakers. We urge Nigerians to ask their various representatives at the National Assembly to kick against such provisions, as it is clearly not in the interest of the nation and its people.

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It is our opinion that, like the proposal for life pension to presiding officers, the move to grant immunity to heads of legislature and judiciary should also be discarded. We recall that less than a month after it rejected the clause, the lower chamber’s Committee on Constitution Review made a volte-face and recommended immunity for heads of legislature and judiciary.

Without any ambiguity, we believe that both propositions are self-serving and morally wrong as all over the world, it is strange for judicial officers and presiding officers of legislature to have immunity. Currently, only the President, Vice President, Governors and their deputies enjoy immunity under Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Moreover, over the years, there have been clamours for the removal of the clause. Strangely, rather than remove it, the current NASS is determined to expand its scope.

As the lawmakers vote, we enjoin them to look at the implication and long-term impacts of their actions on the Nigerian economy. Clearly, a life pension for their presiding officers will be a strain on the economy and should not be allowed.

By Leadership.