Scio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent a
Freedom of Information Act request to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman
of the Governors’ Forum, Ekiti state governor Dr Kayode Fayemi and
Sokoto state governor Aminu Tambuwal, and other 34 governors urging them
to use their “leadership position to urgently disclose details of
payment of pensions to former governors and other ex-officials between
1999 and 2019 under your state’s pension law, and to provide a copy of
the said pension law.”
The organization is also urging each of the 36 state governors to
“provide information on whether any such pension law exists in your
state, and if so, to provide the names and number of ex-governors and
other ex-officials receiving pensions in your state, and to publicly
commit to repealing the law, and to pursue recovery of funds collected
under the pension law.”
In the letter dated 9 December, 2019 and signed by SERAP deputy director
Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said: “Public officials should not
encourage, sustain, or implement jumbo pension laws that show an
appearance of conflict of interest, impropriety or create situation of
personal enrichment. The pension law negates the duty to act honestly
and to represent the needs and concerns of the people, and to refrain
from activities, which interfere with the proper discharge of public
functions.”
SERAP also said: “Any such pension law also represents the use of public
office to advance private interests at the expense of some public
interest, suggests the misuse of legitimate discretion for improper
reasons, and has created a more cynical public view of politics and
politicians.”
According to the organization, “Those who manage the resources of the
state ought to protect the interest of the people in their states.
Public officials while entrusted with duties and discretions are not to
act in their own best interest, but to discharge those duties and
exercise those powers in the interests of the public.”
SERAP’s FoI request read in part: “Repealing any such pension law would
demonstrate your commitment to public service and the requirements of
the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). It would show that you
would not tolerate the use of public office in a manner which ignores
the public interest in order to achieve personal advantage.”
“We would be grateful if the requested information is provided to us
within 7 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we
have not heard from you by then, the Registered Trustees of SERAP shall
take all appropriate legal actions under the FoI Act to compel you to
comply with our request.”
“Pension law for former governors and other senior ex-officials
represents a conflict with the constitutional and legal conflict code of
conduct for public officials, and would seem to prioritise private
interest of former state officials over and above the public interest
and public duties of state governors.”
“The duties on public officials including governors flowing from their
position as trustees to the public also include the duty to refrain from
activities which interfere with the proper discharge of their functions,
and the duty not to place themselves in a position where public duty
conflicts with private interest.”
SERAP’s request is coming on the heels of the landmark judgment
delivered last week by Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo of the Federal High
Court, Lagos ordering the Attorney General of the Federation and
Minister of Justice Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN to challenge the legality
of states’ pension laws permitting former governors and other ex-public
officials to collect such pensions.
The judgment followed the invalidated pension law for former governors
and other ex-public officers in Zamfara State, which provided for the
upkeep of ex-governors to the tune of N700 million annually. The state
has produced three former governors since 1999.
SERAP’s FoI request further read: “This request is consistent with your
constitutional, fiduciary and public service roles, and the spirit of
the landmark judgment delivered last week by Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo
of the Federal High Court, Lagos in the suit brought by SERAP.”
“By Section 1 (1) of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011, SERAP is
entitled as of right to request for or gain access to information,
including information on any life pension law for former governors and
other senior ex-officials in your states and the details of payments to
such officials over the years.”
“By Section 4 (a) of the FoI Act, when a person makes a request for
information from a public official, institution or agency, the public
official, institution or urgency to whom the application is directed is
under a binding legal obligation to provide the applicant with the
information requested for, except as otherwise provided by the Act,
within 7 days after the application is received.”
“By Sections 2(3)(d)(V) & (4) of the FoI Act, there is a binding legal
duty to ensure that documents containing information relating to any
life pension law for former governors and other senior ex-officials in
your states and the details of payments to such officials over the years
are widely disseminated and made readily available to members of the
public through various means.”
“The information being requested does not come within the purview of the
types of information exempted from disclosure by the provisions of the
FoI Act. The information requested for as indicated above, apart from
not being exempted from disclosure under the FoI Act, bothers on an
issue of national interest, public concern, interest of human rights,
social justice, good governance, transparency and accountability.”