THE NATION

 Severance racket 

28/7/2008

The severance package for political office holders is a racket this country can ill afford. It should be severed forthwith in the interest of equity and justice. It is simply unconscionable that a nation that stalls on the Teachers Salary Structure (TSS) has more than enough to fritter on parasitic office holders.

All through the land, it is illicit bazaar everywhere, under the guise of some new pension laws handing departing governors, deputy governors and other political bureaucrats hefty pay-offs that border on the reckless and the insane.

In Gombe State, courtesy of the so-called Executive Pension Laws 2007 and 2008, Governor Muhammed Danjuma Goje reportedly paid himself a handsome N200 million "pension", with the governor’s predecessor, Mallam Abubakar Habu Hashidu, in line for similar gravy.

This new pension policy, purportedly backed by recommendations of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), is a soulless package to further festoon largely ineffective former state executives and other political jobbers with undeserved luxury. The package, condemnably so, is simply mouth-watering.

Departing governors, aside from the hefty pay-off to erect befitting property of their choice, would be entitled to a monthly pay equivalent to what they last earned in office, a state-paid personal assistant not below salary grade level 10, two chauffeur-driven vehicles to be replaced every four years, both drivers paid from state funds, free medical treatment for the former governors and their immediate family members, a telephone facility with internet services and 30 days yearly leave overseas, with generous estacode covering both spouses!

These hefty pension benefits, graduated downwards the political bureaucratic ladder, gives the impression that Nigerian democracy is designed first and foremost to take care of prodigal office holders most of who, nonetheless, did not add much value while in office. For the people, in the throes of perpetual underdevelopment bordering on poverty, it is indeed a case of double jeopardy!

If the sheer quantum of these insane awards is offensive, given the pressing need for socio-economic infrastructure nationwide, the very act of a departing public official "paying himself" such outrageous amount is impunity on four legs. That should be strongly decried by every right-thinking person.

To make matters worse, many a number of these so-called former public office holders got into office by fiddling the vote. But even if they were duly elected, it would still have been objectionable to parasite on the people’s resources, held in their trust to develop the people. That most of them stole their vote, of course, just underscores the depravity of the whole scheme.

Let it be stressed once again: public office is for public service, not indecent private comfort. Of course, public officials, like their private sector counterparts, deserve decent wages to wean them from ogling the public till. But given the present wage realities, in comparison to the public service, what they earn is fair, even generous enough. To now go ahead to carve out an outrageous pension structure is greed pushed too far.

That is why this infernal practice of sacrificing the need of the majority for the greed of a few must stop. Nigeria perhaps has enough resources to cater for the needs of all. If it is not, it is because the greed of a few is spiralling out of control.

It is our patriotic duty to stop this inequity and the breeding of a few fat cats. By that condemnable practice, we only assure penury for the vast majority of our people. That is not a path to democratic dividends. It even aggravates the ‘do-or-die’ battle for public offices.