Life Pension for Senate President, Speaker & Deputies in 1999 Constitution Amendment
While we were all concentrating on the review of the Pension Reform Act 2014 for the general public, there is a proposal in the amendment of the 1999 Constitution to grant life pension to National Assembly presiding officers, including the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as their deputies.
This was disclosed in a report on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, by the National Assembly’s Joint Special Ad Hoc Committee, which contained 68 recommendations.
The proposal for life pension to National Assembly presiding officers is in Recommendation 16, which reads, “That the House does receive the report of the Special Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution on a Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide Pension for Presiding Officers of the National Assembly; and for Related Matters.”
It is pertinent to note that Section 84(5) of the Nigerian constitution guarantees life pension for all former Presidents and Vice-presidents, which already cost alot for the country, gulping an estimated average of N7.8bn yearly.
The provision for life pension for all former Presidents and Vice-presidents in the constitution reads, “Any person who has held office as President or Vice-president shall be entitled to pension for life at a rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent President or Vice-president: Provided that such a person was not removed from office by the process of impeachment or for breach of any provisions of this constitution.”
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), who has been in court challenging the payment of life pensions to some governors and deputy governors, has called on Nigerians to ask their various representatives at the National Assembly to kick against such provisions, adding that it was selfish of them to have considered such a provision in the first place.
SERAP said, “The money could be put to better use, the education sector is there, and our health sector is not getting the best of funding. That proposed amendment should not be allowed to stand. Nigerians should reach out to their representatives at the national assembly to vote against the amendment.”
Auwal Rafsanjani, the Executive Director of The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, which is Nigeria’s chapter of Transparency International, said, “I think this is one of the most self centered provisions for people who have been benefiting from the public fund to now permanently continue to burden Nigerians. This is at the expense of the deteriorating economy, lack of commensurate wages to hardworking Nigerians and also at the expense of social services Nigerians should be enjoying.”
“These people should fear God and be fair to Nigeria. Elective positions are meant to serve the people as seen in other climes but in Nigeria it is seen as an avenue to milk Nigerians dry. This is unfair. We are calling on right thinking people to not allow that particular provision to see the light of the day. We have more pressing issues in the country that they are not giving priority to.”
We will close with a quote from an economist and a senior lecturer of Economics at the Pan Atlantic University, Dr Olalekan Aworinde, who said “If we look at the pension system in Nigeria, some pensioners who have given a lot and contributed a lot in terms of their pension are not able to get their pension when due. Yet, the lawmakers instead of coming to the aid of these people are pursuing life pension for themselves.”
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