With “over N7.8 billion already being spent to service the life pensions of all former Presidents, be it military or civilian, and their vices,” (this is according to reports), the suspended life pension scheme for officers of the National Assembly after their retirement, has resurfaced again despite the federal government claims that the country is broke, and the unpaid claims of deserving civil servants who have served the country for more than 30 years.
The life pension plan, which first surfaced during the Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara led 8th Assembly, was again, one of the recommendations of the National Assembly’s Joint Special Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution report, presented before the house on Wednesday, February 23, 2022.
The life pension move, which was vehemently condemned and rejected when it first surfaced by human rights groups, such as the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), and many other groups, as well as Nigerians, if it goes unopposed again, will favour the current leadership of the National Assembly, comprising the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; and their deputies.
The recommendation, which seeks to benefit only the few names mentioned above, reads, “That the House does receive the report of the Special Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution on a Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide Pension for Presiding Officers of the National Assembly; and for Related Matters.”
While Nigerians await the outcome of the ungodly recommendation, SERAP and other civil/human rights groups, are expected to rise and speak against the despicable, inhuman, unpatriotic, and selfish move of the 9th National Assembly before it is too late.