The Nation Newspaper

Tag: callous

  • Callous, obscene!

    •Proposals for pension for legislators are selfish and insensitive

    Kano State House of Assembly did the unthinkable on Tuesday, last week, when it approved, during plenary, life pension for its speaker and deputy speaker. According to the bill, “any person duly elected as speaker or deputy speaker shall, on completion of his term be entitled to a grant of pension for life by the state, provided that such person was not removed from office through impeachment by members of the House of Assembly.

    “There shall be paid pension to persons who held office as speaker and deputy speaker equal to the emoluments of a serving speaker and deputy speaker, provided that either the speaker or the deputy does not hold any paid elective or selective appointment.’’ The officers are also entitled to a brand new car every four years, to be paid for by the state government. That is not all; even where the speaker or deputy does not complete their term, provided they were not impeached; or if they die in office before their term expires, the pension would be on a pro-rata basis. Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has however vetoed the bill.

    This is commendable. That the law makers had the temerity to make such proposition in the first place is incomprehensible. Coming barely a week after Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State declined assent to a similar bill seeking pension for the state’s legislators after their tenure, the Kano State scenario simply portrays that state’s lawmakers as insensitive and callous, especially at a time of severe economic downturn, and particularly in a state that is home to a horde of almajiris, that the government could have spent the pensions to improve their lot.

    In making a case for the payment for Bayelsa State legislators, the leader of the state house of assembly, Peter Akpe, said the bill, when assented to, would provide financial security for the beneficiaries and protect them from economic uncertainties in the future. Akpe added that only the indigenes of the state who had served in the respective capacities and in the old Rivers State for a minimum period of two years were entitled to the benefit. The law prescribes a monthly post-service life pension of between N0.1 million and N0.5 million for members of the House. Mercifully, Governor Dickson did the commonsensical: he refused assent to the bill for the obvious reason that it was out of tune with the yearnings of the people.

    We thought this should have been the benchmark for other legislators who might be contemplating similar benefits. When, at a two-day retreat on Constitution Review organised by the Senate Ad hoc Committee on Review of 1999 Constitution,n Lagos in 2016, a similar proposal was made to be giving the principal officers of the National Assembly, that is the senate president and his deputy, as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives and his deputy, pension, the deputy senate president, and chairman of the committee, Ike Ekweremadu, had likened the role and position of the legislators to that of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). He said, inter alia: “This has nothing to do with an individual. It is about the institution… Nobody elected the Chief Justice of Nigeria, but he enjoys pension.” Mr. Ekweremadu,  added: “But if we cheapen our own institution, so be it”.

    Could anything have been more ludicrous? Anyway, all these just tell us the mindset of some of the people leading us. How could any rational person be comparing the position of CJN with that of National Assembly leaders? The present crop of lawmakers seems to have forgotten that a time there was when legislators in this country were serving on part-time basis. Anyway, it was good that Nigerians did not allow that proposal to materiaise; they shut it down. It is good too that Governor Ganduje has vetoed the obnoxious bill.

    Above all, however, Nigerians should stand up to these selfish individuals parading themselves as their representatives, whether at the state or national level. They should be stopped from getting fatter at the expense of the people that they claim to be representing. We agree with the submission of the All Progressives Congress (APC)) in Bayelsa State that: “Regarding this latest move by the House of Assembly, we again say that the idea is avaricious, wicked, and insensitive. By proposing such a law, the lawmakers have merely portrayed themselves as a people who feel no concern for the feelings of their suffering constituents.”

  • Callous diversion

    Callous diversion

    •It is inhuman to steal relief items meant for IDPs

    IT is good news that the Federal Government has moved to halt the callous diversion of food meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East. It is reassuring to hear that the government’s special relief intervention programme launched in Maiduguri, Borno State, on June 8 is yielding positive results.

    According to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, a report indicating the gains of the initiative was presented to the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, during a meeting he had with federal legislators from the North-East at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on June 16.

    The statement said “the diversion of relief materials, including food and related matters, which has dogged food delivery to the IDPs would be significantly curbed under the new distribution matrix adopted under the initiative.” It added: “For instance, over 1,000 trucks of assorted grains are now on course, delivering the grains intact to beneficiaries since the commencement of the present programme as against the reported diversion of over 50 trucks in every 100 trucks sent to the North-East.”

    It is noteworthy that, under the new arrangement, 656 armed policemen would be involved in the movement of assorted grains from various reserves across the country to designated warehouses of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the North-East for onward distribution to beneficiaries; and another 1,376 military personnel would escort the grains to some IDPs in the hinterlands across the affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

    It is worrying that such a high level of security is needed to ensure that food meant for IDPs reach them intact. Fundamentally, this picture shows a lamentably low level of morality on the part of those involved in such food diversion. IDPs deserve compassion; stealing food that is provided to soften their hardship amounts to wickedness.

    No doubt, there are also monitoring and accountability issues involved in this drama. It is obvious that there are faults in the food distribution process which demand urgent corrective action by the authorities.

    It is bad enough that the conflict in the country’s north-eastern region has reportedly displaced 2.4 million people and stretched food insecurity and malnutrition to emergency levels.  A year ago, it was estimated that over half a million IDPs required immediate food assistance.

    Talking of food diversion and how IDPs have been shortchanged by unconscionable characters, news of the unlawful sale of fruit donated to Nigerian Muslims by the government of Saudi Arabia further highlighted the depth of a moral problem.  A statement issued on behalf of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Khadijat Abba-Ibrahim, indicated that the Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons had drawn up a list of recipients, which included IDP camps and prominent mosques.

    A shocking report said: “The fruit, date palm, which is peculiar to the Middle East, was expected to be distributed free of charge to indigent Muslims via designated mosques in the country; but it is now being sold in the open market.” The minister said: “This is not the spirit in which the 200 tonnes of dates were given…It is therefore disappointing to learn that some of the consignment is being sold for profit. The ministry apologises unreservedly to the government and people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for this unfortunate turn of events.”

    How did the dates get to the marketplace? A thorough investigation should be conducted to answer this question. Again, beyond the likely systemic weaknesses that provided an enabling environment for such diversion, there is a big moral question.

    In the final analysis, it is important that all hands are on deck to tackle the IDP emergency with the desired humanitarian spirit.

  • Those wishing Buhari dead are callous, treacherous — Obasanjo

    Those wishing Buhari dead are callous, treacherous — Obasanjo

    Former President  Olusegun Obasanjo has flayed Nigerians wishing President Muhammadu Buhari dead, saying they are “callous, treacherous and wicked.”

    A section of the social media was awash with reported claims that President Buhari had died in London, United Kingdom, following his illness last week.

    Buhari who had travelled to London on a 10-day vacation is expected back in the country next week.

    However, Obasanjo said instead of embarking on such negative and worrisome mission of wishing Buhari dead, the Nigerians behind the despicable acts ought to be praying for his quick recovery and return to Nigeria.

    The ex-President who recalled that he too was a victim of such rumoured death, made this known in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, through his media aide,  Kehinde Akinyemi  yesterday.

    He cautioned the purveyors and instigators of rumoured death of their fellow human beings to desist from the shameful and wicked inclinations.

    According to him, those behind the death wish on President Buhari, an elderly man,  are not “normal people.”

    “Instead of embarking on such worrisome declaration, all that the President needed “are our prayers and best wishes, which will ginger his morale to come back more stronger and better.

    “No normal human being will wish an elderly person dead irrespective of their differences.

    “If you don’t like him, wait for another election, not going about to say he is dead.

    “No matter his health situation, we should pray for him to recover quick and come back more stronger and better. For anyone wishing him dead, such person or group of persons are callous, wicked and treacherous.

    “I was also rumoured to have died almost 12 times. I don’t know what they derive from doing so, but they should seek for forgiveness.

    “Even if we know that the President is sick, he is in a better position to know what to say or what to do and not wishing him dead. We should just stop politicizing everything, especially with the elderly in the country,” Obasanjo said.

  • APC to Fayose: you are callous

    APC to Fayose: you are callous

    •Pay Sept salary, says party

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has accused Governor Ayo Fayose of callousness.

    In a  statement yesterday by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the party described Fayose’s refusal to pay workers’ September salary as “wicked, callous and insensitive”.

    The APC spokesman said records would show the debt profile of the state during former Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration, adding that the people’s experience during Christmas would show who was lying between the two leaders.

    The party said since federal allocations are paid in arrears, it was incumbent upon Fayose to pay September salary with September federal allocation that he collected in October after Fayemi had left.

    “It was Fayose as governor-elect who went to harass the banks that had overdraft arrangement with the Fayemi administration to stop granting such facilities even though it is the same facility Fayose is using to pay salaries.

    “We wish to remind Governor Fayose that even if it was Fayemi who did not pay September salary, government is a continuum and whoever assumes office inherits both assets and liabilities.

    “It is, therefore, a misnomer for the governor to declare in a heartless manner on state radio and television that Ekiti workers should forget September salary.”

    He explained that Fayose’s declaration had confirmed speculations and  fears that he had misapplied the September salary amounting to over N1. 5 billion.

    Olatunbosun added: “If he paid December salary with November allocation that he received in December, what stopped him from paying September salary with September allocation that he received in October?

    “Why skipping September salary only to pay October salary with September’s allocation?

    “What is he planning to do with the one month salary that is outstanding now and which allocation he had already collected?”