Column
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| By Mike Akpan |
IT CAME in a haste and is also going in a haste. The controversial Akwa Ibom State former Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Bill 2014, which came into effect on June 1, is to be repealed. Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio told journalists in Lagos, Wednesday, June 3, that in deference to misinterpretations of the good intention of government, he had decided to send a Bill to the State House of Assembly requesting for a review of the law. The Bill, which was sent to the State House of Assembly on May 15, was hurriedly passed by the House on May 26, without subjecting it to public hearing . It became law with effect from June 1, after the governor assented to it. The new law replaced the 2006 Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law.
Some provisions of the new law raised some eyebrows. For instance, under the new law, a former governor was to pocket a whooping N200 million in annual pay on leaving office while the deputy governor was also entitled to N100 million for the same purpose. The new law also provided for N100 million or an equivalent of $ 600,000 annual medical allowance to former governors and N50 million or an equivalent of $ 300,000 for deputy governors. This provision is to be repealed. Outside that, the new law still provides for the governor’s entitlement to a new official car and a utility vehicle once every four years. There is also provision for the governor to be entitled to one personal aide, and adequate security for his person during his lifetime at the expense of the government. That is not all. Akwa Ibom taxpayers are to cough out every month, an amount not exceeding N5 million or an equivalent of $ 50,000 for the former governor to engage the services of a cook, chauffeurs and security guards. For the deputy governor, he or she is entitled to N2 million or an equivalent of $ 20,000 as monthly allowance for the hiring of a cook, chauffeurs and security guards.
There is also provision in the law for a former governor to be given a befitting accommodation not below a 5-bedroom maisonette in either Abuja or Akwa Ibom State and a yearly accommodation allowance of 300 percent of his or her annual basic salary for the deputy governor every four years. The former governor’s house is to be furnished and maintained at public expense. Therefore, the law has provided for a furniture allowance of 300 percent of his annual basic salary to be paid every four years. This will translate into N6,671,115 for the governor and N6,336,645 for the deputy. The governor and the deputy are also entitled to yearly maintenance and fueling of vehicle allowance of 300 percent of their annual basic salaries. This will translate into N6,671,115 for the governor and N6,336,645 for the deputy governor.
The governor is not done yet with public funds. The law provides for his yearly utility allowance of 100 percent of his annual basic salary. That works out at N2,223,705 for the governor and N2,112,215 for the deputy. For entertainment of visitors during their retirement, the governor and the deputy are to receive a yearly entertainment allowance of 100 percent of their annual basic salaries. That works out at N2,223,705 for the governor and N2,112,215 for the deputy. In the event of death, the cost of burial of the governor will be borne by the state. Thereafter, a condolence allowance of a sum equivalent to the annual basic salary of the incumbent would be paid to his next of kin. Moreover, there is provision for the widows of former governors to be paid N1million every month for medical expenses and N500,000 every month for the widows of former deputy governors. The law has been variously described as a planned retirement rip-off of the state’s treasury by the governor. The general impression within and outside the state was that the governor decided to amend the pension law to provide for himself after he would have left office next year. As one critic bluntly said: “The 2014 Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law is a coup on the public treasury. The man who purportedly fixed Akwa Ibom State with his uncommon transformation has decided to unfix it before he leaves office. Can you imagine how much the state will be paying out to former governors and deputy governors every year? Until this law, which has put governor Akpabio in the eyes of the public as a man of insatiable greed, I had always admired him as a great reformer and visionary. I feel very sad that he has not even given thought to the possibility that the huge payout provision the law has made for him and others can truncate the future of the free and compulsory education, health care delivery and other progressive policies his government has put in place in the last six years.”
Perhaps, such strident criticisms compelled the governor to have a rethink especially on the sections that provided for an annual medical allowance of N100 million or an equivalent of $600,000 for former governors and N50 million or an equivalent of $300,000 for former deputy governors. Many critics felt the medical allowances, especially the dollar components, were to be paid out every year to the beneficiaries. But Akpabio said that was not the intention of the law. According to him, “It is my hope that with the excision of these sections from the amendment, the agents of falsehood would lift their siege on truth and not distract the good people of this state from the task of the uncommon transformation of our dear state.” Unlike the thinking of the governor, these were not the only controversial sections of the law. Do former governors and deputy governors who had accumulated much wealth while in office really need the state to provide them accommodation and other perks of office?
The Americans, whose presidential system of government Nigeria copied since 1979, had the foresight that huge payouts to former presidents, vice presidents, governors and deputies could impact negatively on the national and state economies in future. That was why, for several years, their constitutions made no provision for presidential retirement benefits until the enactment of the Former Presidents Act, FPA, in 1958. Since then, presidential retirement benefits have included a lifetime annual pension, staff and office allowances, travel expenses, secret service protection and more. For instance, former presidents are offered a taxable lifetime pension equal to the annual rate of basic pay for the heads of executive branch departments, like secretaries. In Nigeria, that should have been 300 percent of their annual basic pay.
This amount is set annually by Congress and is currently $193,400 per year. The pension starts the minute the president officially leaves office at noon on inauguration day. Widows of former presidents are provided with a $20,000 annual lifetime pension and mailing privileges, unless they choose to waive their right to the pension. Former presidents are also entitled to transition expenses. This means that for the first seven months, beginning one month before the January 20, inauguration, an outgoing president gets a transition funding of $1.5 million to help facilitate his transition to private life. Same goes for an outgoing vice president. The funds are used to provide a suitable office space, staff compensation, communications services, printing and postage associated with transition. As an example, Congress authorized a total of $1.5 million for the transition expenses of outgoing President George H. W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle. But in Nigeria, presidents, vice presidents, governors and deputy governors don’t want to transit into private life and would prefer to live their retirement lives on public funds.
Unlike in Nigeria, former American presidents and vice presidents do not get medical allowances. They and their spouses, widows and minor children are entitled to treatment in military hospitals. Health care costs are billed to the individual at a rate established by the Office of Management and Budget, OMB. Former presidents and their dependents may also enroll in private health plans at their own expense. Regarding staff and office allowances for the former president and the vice president, what the Americans do is that six months after a president leaves office, he or she gets funds for an office staff. During the first 30 months after leaving office, the former president gets a maximum of $150,000 per year for that purpose. Thereafter, the Former Presidents Act stipulates that the aggregate rates of staff compensation for a former president cannot exceed $96,000 annually. Any additional staff costs must be paid for personally by the former president.
In the case of office space and office supplies, former presidents are compensated for these at any location in the United States. Funds for their office space and equipment are authorized annually by the Congress as part of the budget for the General Services Administration. For their travel expenses, the 1968 law authorizes the GSA to make funds available to former presidents and not more than two of his staff members for travel and related expenses. To be compensated, the travel must be related to the former president’s status as an official representative of the United States government. What that means is that travel for pleasure is not compensated and the GSA determines all appropriate costs for travel.
From the above data, it is clear that the Americans are not extravagant in providing for their former presidents, vice presidents, governors, deputy governors and other former public office holders as is the case in Nigeria even though their country is the richest in the world. They are very conscious of the negative effects extravagance or unjustifiable payouts to former executives and their deputies at federal and state levels can have on the future of their economy. But in Nigeria, such concern does not bother public office holders. Their concern is the future comfort of themselves and their families. None of them has spared any thought to imagine what impact such huge payouts could have on the future of the national economy and those of the respective states when the number of the beneficiaries begins to add up in Nigeria. Akpabio is not alone in the sponsorship of unconscionable pension laws which display insatiable greed. Similar outrageous pension laws are also in place in Kwara, Rivers, Benue, Lagos and Bauchi States, among others.
Bisi Akande, former governor of Osun State between 1999 and 2003 and currently interim national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, does not see the moral justification for such laws. According to him, “A governor does not spend his salary on his upkeep because everything is provided for him including food, transport, dressing allowance and other daily needs; whenever a governor sleeps outside his state, he is entitled to an allowance even when the state pays for his hotel accommodation, feeding, transport and other incidentals.” Akande said in an interview some years back: “When I was governor, sometimes when my staff brought some vouchers for me to sign to collect some allowances, I cancelled them on moral ground and directed that the money be returned to the treasury. Besides, security vote was always there for me to spend at will. What you get after your tenure should be enough for any reasonable person to live comfortably after leaving office.” In other words, those who had left office as chief executives at either federal or state level and still want to live on public funds thereafter, are exhibiting insatiable greed.
mikeakpan2003@yahoo.com | 08023880068
— Jun. 16, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
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