I read with utter
consternation the frivolous demand of the Bayelsa State members of the House of
Assembly advocating for life pensions bill for ex-members as part of the juice
to be placed on the political table in that glorious State of Bayelsa. To
demonstrate their high level of their low-thinking, they went as far as asking
for a compelling amount of Five-hundred thousand Naira monthly pension for ex-Speakers
and some other provocative amounts to the Deputy-speakers and ordinary members
of the House after their retirement from “meritorious service” of the State
spanning a paltry period of eight years of sometimes unproductive and less impactful activities.
This irrational demand is
purely in contrast with the ethos of democratic practice which is representation
of the people purposely for their welfare and security. The essence of
political representation is not for exploitation of the masses from vantage
position as demonstrated by these Bayelsan legislatures. The members of the
Bayelsa State House of Assembly have acted in deliberate aberration; an action
diametrically opposed to common sense in governance and tenets of democracy.
The response and reaction
of the Governor of the State, Seriake Dickson is worth commending. It gives a
spark of hope that we still have reasonable people in the midst of those infested
with moral meningitis. The Governor flatly rejected this anti-people and
disgraceful proposed bill. He would in the final analysis have assented to the
bill if it was passed, but he rejected it with all sense of responsibility and
moral decency. He was actually the medical personnel that aborted the
ill-conceived proposed bill by legislative prostitutes.
Another great Bayelsan of
repute is the ever-bubbling Comrade Eva, an activist of the Niger-Delta
extraction. He lambasted the obnoxious bill of these legislatures. His anger
was so clearly manifested that he recommended public flogging of these greedy
and childish politicians at one of the river fronts in Bayelsa State. He berated
them that those who did not even know how the State was created wanted to use
the opportunity as public officers to reap where they did not sow He further
stated that carrying placards to denounce this disdainful act was not enough to
contain the pettiness of these car-boy
politicians (so Comrade Eva called them) but insisted on an opprobrium
on them. He defended such treatment as a legacy which the upcoming Bayelsan
politicians, and by extension the politicians from the Niger Delta would learn
from and take caution.
The proposed bill of these
greedy politicians calls for complete condemnation by all well-meaning people
of Bayelsa State and Nigeria at large. Some State Governors in Nigeria are shamelessly
owing their workers as much as twelve months salaries, and the pensioners owed
as much as over 30 months pensions, and gratuities. On the contrary, those who
claim to represent the masses are there working out their ill-fated pensions
design with their own selfish template, besides their fat salaries they do not
ordinarily qualify or work for.
There are some states
where the cumulative amount of both the State Bond and the statutory Retirement
Savings Account of the Contributory Pension Scheme is paltry Four Million
Naira. If such a retiree opts for Programmed Withdrawal or Annuity, as the case
may be, being their pension payment option, such pensioner would be placed on
ridiculous pensions with attendant multiplier effect of poverty. The monthly
pension for some of the pensioners who
had served a State for 35 years is nothing but an advanced programmed poverty. A
Speaker who may have cornered himself to be one, is proposing to earn as much as
N500,000 per month as his monthly pension upon his exit as a Speaker. This is daylight robbery and outright exploitation of the
already impoverished tax payers.
The Nigeria Labour
Congress, Trade Union Congress, Civil Society Organizations, Rights activists
should raise their voices against this and similar obnoxious bill
whenever and wherever it surfaces, either at the federal or State levels. Looking
further, even the monthly salaries of the members of the outgoing National Parliament is certainly very outrageous and
disappointing. These are people who hardly form quorum in their plenary. Even when
they managed to attend sessions, half of the period is spent on self-serving
legislative activities, thus producing no reasonable and robust legislation for the country.
The constitution of this
country needs to be reviewed or overhauled so as to address some of these
stinking anomalies perpetrated by these legislatures and other folks in the
same fold.
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