NO fewer than 21 senators who had served as
governors of their respective states in Nigeria are currently earning double portions
from the Federal Republic of Nigeria by receiving pensions and all entitlements
as sitting senators amidst peanuts allocated to pensioners but still in
arrears.
Former governors in this categories who are
sitting senators are the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki (Kwara); Rabiu
Musa Kwankwaso (Kano); Kabiru Gaya (Kano);
Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Theodore Orji (Abia); Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa);
and Sam Egwu (Ebonyi).
Others are Shaaba Lafiagi (Kwara); Joshua
Dariye (Plateau); Jonah Jang (Plateau); Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko (Sokoto);
Ahmed Sani Yarima (Zamfara); Danjuma Goje (Gombe); Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Yobe);
Adamu Aliero (Kebbi); George Akume (Benue) and Isiaka Adeleke (Osun)...
The former deputy governors in the Senate
are Ms Biodun Olujimi of Ekiti and Enyinaya Harcourt Abaribe of Abia; and
Danladi Abubakar Sani served as the acting governor of Taraba state. Similarly,
former Senate President David Mark is earing military pension as well as his
salary as elected senator from Benue state.
Many former governors are also in the present cabinet
of President Muhammadu Buhari as ministers. They include Dr. Chris Ngige, Dr. Kayode Fayemi,
Rotimi Amaechi and Mr. Babtunde Fashola (SAN).
In Akwa Ibom State, the law provides that ex
governors and deputy governors receive pension equivalent to the salaries of
the incumbent. The package also includes a new official car and a utility
vehicle every four years; one personal aide; a cook, chauffeurs and security
guards for the governor at a sum not exceeding N5 million per month and N2.5
million for his deputy governor.
In Rivers, the law provides 100 percent of
annual basic salaries for the ex-governor and deputy, one residential house for
the former governor “anywhere of his choice in Nigeria”; one residential house
anywhere in Rivers for the deputy, three cars for the ex-governor every four
years and two cars for the deputy every four years.
In Lagos, a former governor gets two houses,
one in Lagos and another in Abuja, estimated at N500 million in Lagos and N700
million in Abuja. He also receives six new cars to be replaced every three
years; a furniture allowance of 300 percent of annual salary to be paid every
two years, and a N30 million pension annually for life.
Apart from these outrageous pensions accruing to
the senators, the allowances allocated to per sitting are good enough for
rehabilitating dilapidated roads and fix some other sectors of the economy in
the country.
Absolutely, a public servant with principles cannot
collect salaries and allowances as a senator or minister, and still queue in to
claim pension equivalent to the salaries of a serving governor in Nigeria for a
tenure of four or eight years, sadly in a society proper pensioners openly drop
dead in long queues trying to collect few thousands of naira for a whole month.
Indeed, this is an indicative of hubris and lacuna
in the laws of the federation and the sooner it is visited, the better for the
republic except George Orwell’s forecast in his Animal Farm is playing out.
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