Some political party chieftains on Friday faulted the Senate’s proposed alteration of Section 84 of the Nigerian constitution to provide life pension for past presiding officers of the National Assembly.
The politicians told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that since former lawmakers held elective positions to serve the country, they must have been generously remunerated and therefore, ineligible for pension.
It will be recalled that the Senate on July 16 held a voice vote to alter Section 84 of the Nigerian Constitution (as amended) by inserting a new sub-section 5(a) and sub-section 8(a).
The sub-sections sought to provide for remuneration for former senate president and his deputy, as well as the speaker of the house of representatives and his deputy.
Alhaji Balarabe Musa, the National Chairman of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) and former Kaduna State Governor, argued that proposing pension for past presiding officers was unjustified as they already received fat salary when they were in office.
“In the first place, what they (Lawmaker) want to do cannot be justified on any ground; these people are already being paid efficiently enough, in short people think they are paid too much for the work they do.
“And therefore, for them to ask for pension, its insensitive; the implication of that is misuse of public funds and lack of national priority.“
Speaking in the same vein, Alhaji Musa Umar, the Protem Deputy National Chairman of the Merger Support Group (MSG), described the lawmakers’ proposal as a selfish one, adding that the salaries and allowances they allocated to themselves were enormous.
MSG is the group that brought together the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to the form the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to Umar, the past presiding officers of the National Assembly have held elective offices and enjoyed all the appurtenances that went with the offices thus making them unentitled to any form of pension.
“I do not think that is proper because these people in the first place, their position is an elective position; they were elected into positions by Nigerians to serve them; it’s not a permanent appointment that will generate pension and gratuity.
“And the amount they have already allocated for themselves as salary and allowances is by far too much.
“And most of these people are already either business men or money people that used their money to get there; why do they need another pension or another payment after they have retired or after they lose election?“
He, therefore, advised Nigerians to oppose the proposal.
However, Bishop Gabriel Omoruyi, the Spokesperson for the Lagos Chapter of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), did not believe there was anything wrong with past presiding officers of the National Assembly receiving pension.
According to him, the past officers spent time to serve the country and as such deserved pension.
“Personally I don’t see anything wrong with it; the only thing here is that we don’t consider the labour that these people put on, these people spent time to serve.
“And ordinarily what they would have been doing if they are not there, they are not doing it, and then they focused on the progress of Nigeria, no matter the weaknesses that we noticed in some of them.
“We can’t because of that refused those people who have rightly served the country not to receive their benefits after serving otherwise; we will be encouraging corruption indirectly; because when they know that they are not going to be cared for after their service, instead of serving the country, they will be serving their pockets.“