The Nation Newspaper

Tag: aberration

  • An aberration that should stop forthwith

    Sir: According to Section 124, Sub – Section 5 of the     Nigerian constitution, “Provisions may be made by law of a House of Assembly for the grant of a pension or gratuity to or in respect of a person who had held office as governor or deputy governor and was not removed from office as a result of impeachment; and any pension granted by virtue of any provision made in pursuance of this sub – section shall be made in a charge upon the Consolidated Revenue of the state.’’

    It is the aforementioned constitutional provision that the governors have, since May 1999, relied preponderantly upon to use their respective state assemblies to approve outrageous pensions for themselves. Those who crafted this provision and inserted it in the 1999 Constitution were ignorant of an enabling circular, Reference No. 63216/S . I /XT/8 dated 22nd July, 1992 from The Presidency, Office of Establishments and Management Services, Federal Secretariat, Phase II, Ikoyi, Lagos. According to the said circular on the REVIEW OF PENSION BENEFITS, ‘’The period of qualifying service for pension is reduced from 15 to 10 years.”

    From the quoted circular, it can be inferred that there is no governor or deputy governor that is qualified to be paid any pension whatsoever for serving any state of the federation. The maximum number of years a governor or deputy governor may serve is eight years. Mathematically, eight years is not equivalent to 10 years. According to the law of Nigeria, governors or deputy governors and other appointed or elected political officers are only entitled to severance allowances approved by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission.

    There are some past governors who are now serving as legislators in our National Assembly. They collect pensions from their states and staggering emoluments for serving as legislators in the National Assembly. I am yet to know any country beside Nigeria where this immoral conduct is practiced.

    On June 18, 2016, the Senate Ad –hoc Committee on Constitutional Review had a retreat in Lagos. During the retreat, some senators proposed, among other issues, life pension for the presiding officers of the National Assembly. After the proposal, some persons and corporate bodies, such as Human Rights Lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), and the Socio-Economic Right and Accountability Projects (SERAP) described the proposal as irrational, immoral, insensitive and provocative. Consequently, the proposal died prematurely. One would have expected state legislators to have learned from the premature death of what their senior colleagues at the national level intended to do on life pension. However, the Bayelsa State House of Assembly went to pass a bill that would confer life pension on all members of the assembly, including former and subsequent members. Governor of Bayelsa State, Honourable Seriake Dickson, declined assent to the obnoxious bill because he knows, as a lawyer, that there is no constitutional basis that permits state legislators to enact law for payment of pension or any form of remuneration for themselves. It is sad to note that Kano State and Ekiti State legislators are in the process of copying the Bayelsa assembly on life pension for themselves.

    For how long shall well – meaning Nigerians tolerate our leaders in the different arms of government to do whatever they desire and get away unchecked? It is high time Nigerians stopped folding their arms in allowing the wealth of the country to be in the hands of a few compatriots while the country as a whole is left to bear the economic woes created by the kleptomaniacs who govern the country. According to Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, 1988, “People should aspire for leadership only when they are ready to serve sincerely, honestly and with dedication.” When the converse of this assertion holds, the oppressed people of Nigeria should challenge leaders in areas where they believe that something wrong has taken place.

    The payment of either pensions or gratuities to past governors, deputy governors or legislators at the state and national levels is an aberration that should stop forthwith. Ironically, public servants who genuinely and patriotically served their irrespective states for not less than 10 years are being denied their approved pensions and gratuities by governors who have approved pensions for themselves.

     

    • Deacon Dapo Omotoso Ado – Ekiti.

  • Aberration in FedPoly, Auchi

    SIR: I call on the authorities to intervene in the on-going recommendation of an unqualified acting Rector of the Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi to the position of a substantive Rector by the newly constituted Governing Council of the institution.

    In November 2015, an advert was placed in a national daily declaring the position of Rector, Auchi Polytechnic vacant. On the expiration of the tenure of immediate past Rector, Dr. P. Idogho in February, 2016, Engr. J. Buraimah (Deputy Rector Academic and indigene of Auchi) was appointed to act pending when a new Rector would be appointed.

    Then applicants were invited after which qualified persons were shortlisted. After a lot of petitions based on the shortlisting process, an interview was finally conducted for all the applicants (shortlisted and not shortlisted) on the July 14, 2016.

    To the disappointment of the polytechnic community and contrary to all known procedures, Dr. Sanusi Momodu Jimah, an indigene of Auchi, was appointed as acting Rector not by the minister of education as the usual practice but by the Executive Secretary, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Dr. M Kazaure to take over from Engr. Buraimah (who had acted for a year) after the committee set up by the ministry of education to appoint a new rector conducted its job and made the three recommended persons known to the Presidency.

    It is of interest to note that the said Dr. Jimah who has now been imposed on Auchi Polytechnic, is not even qualified for the office of the acting Rector since the Deputy Rector, (Administration) and Deputy Rector, (Academics) are on ground. The irony of it all is that Dr. Jimah  who was rated 14th out of  a total 26 lecturers that were interviewed by the panel in 2016 has been recommended by the new Governing Council of the polytechnic for the substantive post in their inaugural meeting held on June 19.

    It is shameful and makes mockery of laid down rules and procedures in academics that an unqualified person be appointed in acting capacity to pave the way for substantive appointment soon after. This substitution of merit with ethnicity is fraudulent by any standard and this arrangement may result in the polytechnic losing her accreditation anytime soon.

    Let the confirmation of the substantive rector be based on the recommendation of the report of the interview conducted by the Ministry of Education without any further delay to pave the way for the appointment of a qualified and merited person just as it done in the case of Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State and others. A stitch in time saves nine. The timely action of the presidency on this matter will save us an unimaginable damages it might cause the educational system.

     

    • Paul Lucky Irabor,

    Auchi, Edo State.

  • Pension aberration

    SIR: Over the years, I can’t stop imagining why Nigerian politicians earn pension without contributing to such pension. In the civil service, a civil servant is expected to serve for 35 years. During this period, he is expected to contribute certain percentage of his money as pension under the contributory pension scheme. If such civil servant retires, what he gets as pension on monthly basis is less than two-third of his monthly salary while in active service.

    In the case of Nigerian politicians, after serving for just eight years as governor for instance without contributing a dime as pension in the contributory pension scheme, the politician will be placed on a mouth-watering amount which is more than what a civil servant gets in a year as salary.

    This fraudulent pension system where an active politician is placed on pension is draining our economy and should be stopped to save the future of this country. Let us put a stop to this impunity.

     

    • Adewumi ‘Tope Humble

    Omuo-oke Ekiti, Ekiti State.

  • ‘In a federal system, it’s an aberration not to have state police’

    ‘In a federal system, it’s an aberration not to have state police’

    Abdurrazaq Balogun is the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund. He was the Chief Whip of the Lagos State House of Assembly and thus a member of the leadership of the Assembly when the law setting up the trust fund was passed. Today, he sits atop the agency. In this interview with Oziegbe Okoeki, he speaks on the activities and his vision to take the fund to higher levels. 

    You were part of the State Assembly that passed the law setting up the Lagos State Trust Fund, so you must be very familiar with the provisions of that law; from your experience so far as the agency’s Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, will you say the agency is meeting up with the provisions of that law?

    I will even say in my view, with what I have seen on ground, they have surpassed the expectations of the law. But again, don’t also forget that Lagos State Security Trust Fund had no precedent before its creation in Lagos State. So, the former board actually built from scratch and over the years what we met on ground in the last eight years since its creation has been one that is very fantastic. We met a board that is up and running well and it just really shows that sometimes this is exactly examples of institution being built not around people because almost all the pioneer board members have left, including the former Executive Secretary, and yet we have inherited a very fantastic infrastructure and also management.

    You never envisaged when you were passing the law that one day you would head the organisation but that has become a reality now, now that you are in charge, are there any areas in the law that you think needs improvement by way of amendments?

    Yes, there are some few things I have seen in the law and even outside the law that I feel, because what the intendment of the law is, is that it will be an interventionist sort of an agency, to bridge the gap between security agencies and Lagos State because of the years of neglect of security agencies. So this fund was created to source for resources from the private sectors and well meaning Nigerians to be able to intervene in activities of security agencies. So it encompasses everything that has to do with security in Lagos State but don’t also forget that security is in the exclusive list of the constitution so that limits the work we can aspire to do; for instance, we have spoken about the state police that has not come to fruition. But as it is right now, if you ask me what I want to do in the law, I will ask for, for instance compelling public places to have their own special security apparatus. For instance look at our shopping malls today, all our shopping malls, it is a new concept, a very brilliant concept, but I don’t think the security is adequate. I will want something whereby you can control the people entering the mall in a very controlled manner both in the entrance and exit and you can have things like scanners, body scanners, lobby scanners so that at least you know that everybody entering the mall for instance will not carry devices that are injurious to the people. But by and large, so far so good, I have looked at the law over and over again, I think it is still very much okay as it is right now but I am sure as we go on I will now continue to see ways and manners by which we can review but as it is right now, it is adequate for us at the moment.

    What would you say are the challenges so far?

    For me, I really don’t see anything as a challenge. I see it as a way to forge ahead. What I see here is that we need to be more proactive in this fund. This fund needs to be much more visible. We need to reach out to a large number of the populace. We cannot continue to depend on large donors only, because certainly we all know the economic situation of the country. Most of our big donors are banks and stuff like that and well meaning Nigerians. But now we want to be out there, to let Nigerians and Lagosians know that security is the concern of everyone and that every token, every naira you donate goes a long way. So instead of just concentrating on big donors, if for instance in Lagos State we have donors, just 1million donors that donate N1000 – that would be N1billion. That is the kind of money we have never made in this fund. And so we want to make it much more visible, we want to also be able to make Lagosians know that every money that they donate is well spent, is well accounted for; we run a very transparent and accountable organisation here. And that whatever they are giving, we are giving back to them what they expect from us by making the security agencies much more visible, much more responsive, and friendlier. And giving statistics of the crime rate in Lagos State and over the years, what we have seen is that there has been a huge decrease in crime rate, I mean vis-a-vis the cosmopolitan nature and the challenges of Lagos State.

    You talked of state police earlier, a lot of people believe that with the kind of support the state government is giving to the security agencies through this fund, that it will be able to fund and maintain a state police. What are your views on the clamour for state police and the ability of the state government to fund and maintain it?

    It is something that I know Lagos State has been clamouring for, even as a parliamentarian we have debated on this matter several times. Lagos State has always been in front of any innovation in this country. As a matter of fact, in any federal system, because we are supposed to practice federalism in Nigeria, it is an aberration that you have a state government without a state police, prisons, county prisons or local government prisons or even police. It is not really a big deal; I think Lagos State is poised to establish a state police once we are given the clearance to do so. We’ve had LASTMA over the years, which is one of the most successful stories of Lagos State; we have KAI, all these are uniformed personalities. Now, the trust fund is here and look at the resources we have generated over the years vis-a-vis what we have been able to maintain in terms of security in Lagos State. So for me, I think Lagos State is ready and I am sure if that is eventually actualised, Lagos State would be the better for it, the citizens would be a lot better.

    Does the Agency get directly involved in security issues, like for instance calling on the Agency for rescue in case of armed robbery attack anywhere? 

    No, it is not primarily our responsibility, don’t forget that no matter what we do to assist the police, we are not police officers; we are not trained to perform their functions. I think what we want to do in this administration is to have a very robust interface with the people, to have a very robust website where people can interact with us, send messages to us, issues that they may not be confident to discuss with the police; they can send us and we can forward it to this people. We also want to make the emergency numbers of 112 and 767 very, very visible, so that all Lagosians can know these numbers at their finger tips; after all you don’t need to have a kobo on your phone for you to be able to asses these emergency numbers.

    There was this talk about installing CCTV all over Lagos for security purpose some time ago, how far has it gone?

    When the governor came on board, I think security is one of his main cardinal objectives in the state. He understands that without security, people cannot go about their business with ease, and if business don’t thrive, you can’t get revenue to build Lagos. He is very, very passionate about the security of Lagos state and the CCTV project is on course. I know there are so many committees working on it. We want to have a very robust CCTV system in Lagos that would stand the test of time.