National Assembly and its Controversial Pension : A Critique

Abstract

The National Assembly is proposing life pensions for its principal officers. The decision of the National Assembly on the life pensions for the Senate President, his deputy, the House of Representatives Speaker and the Deputy Speaker has continued to generate controversy. Many Nigerians believe that the move smacked of egocentricity and insensitivity to the mood of the polity. And it has attracted so much condemnation. If the proposal becomes law, then, the principal officers will be entitled to a pension for life at a rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent President and the Deputy President of Senate, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives. In the usual characteristic of the Nigerian political elite, the Nigerian Senate took an egocentric stand against the greater good of the Nigerian people, as the lawmakers overwhelmingly voted against local government autonomy but endorsed life pension for the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives. What is clear from this self-serving action is that, our collective interest as a people is never paramount to these so-called representatives. Having conducted a public hearing in various constituencies across the land during which Nigerians overwhelming advocated total autonomy of the local government and expressed their views on other constitutional matters, one would have expected our senators to allow the wishes of the people to prevail. Rather, they chose to be on the inglorious part of history, dissipating their energies in promoting mundane desires instead of solving the peoples’ ultimate desire – welfare. The paper examines the controversial proposal and its implications for the polity.