The Nigeria Labour Congress has said
that the proposed life pension and immunity for the principal officers
of the National Assembly was a product of greed and ego.
The President of the NLC, Mr. Ayuba
Wabba, said in a statement on Tuesday that those behind the move only
opted to adopt an immoral, bad and illegal model put in place by the
governors which could not be sustained.
Wabba said that the pension could only be paid to those who had put in 35 years of meritorious service to the country.
He
lamented that the concept of pension was being subverted by politicians
who awarded huge severance benefits to themselves after four years in
office.
He said the decision of some exiting
governors to compel the states’ Houses of Assembly to enact laws
approving a sizable percentage of state allocation as severance packages
was the worst manifestation of greed.
He said, “We are convinced, nothing but
ego and greed are the over-riding interest for wanting to put the
leadership of the legisture on life pension.
“What the governors have done is
unrealistic and immoral and rather than ensure the right thing is done,
some senators have elected to set up for themselves a model that is at
once bad, immoral, illegal and unsustainable.
“The concept of pension derives from 35
years of meritorious service. However, politicians in time, subverted
this time-honoured practice by awarding themselves generous severance
packages after four years in office.
“These packages not only make a mockery
of what public servants take, the beneficiaries are paid up front while
the average public service pensioner dies on the verification queue!
“The height of this infamy and greed was
when exiting governors literally coerced or seduced states’ Houses of
Assembly into writing into “Law” their severance packages which take a
sizeable percentage of the state’s budget.”
Wabba, who challenged the senators to
get their priority right, said that the focus of politics should be an
urge to deliver service to the electorates, not robbery.
The NLC’s President said that it was the
expectation of t labour for the Senate ‘to outlaw the criminal pensions
for ex-governors and any other undeserving retiree through an amendment
of the Constitution.’
He lamented that the senators had
ignored the consistent calls for the removal of the immunity clause for
the President, governors and their deputies as they were more interested
in how to attract more perks to outshine the executive and the
judiciary.
Meanwhile, the presiding officers of the
National Assembly including the President of the Senate and the Speaker
of the House of Representatives are entitled to only severance
allowances at the successful conclusion of their tenure in office, the
Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission has said.
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