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Where are first ladies’ entitlements? Aisha asks as Buhari, Osinbajo others go home with billions

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President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and ministries, among others, would receive a hefty severance package when they left their positions tomorrow. Outrage has been generated by the developments taking place in a suffering economy.

The sum of the monies is what the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Commission, or RMAFAC, has determined to be their total benefits upon disengagement.

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Aisha Buhari, the president’s wife, has vehemently argued for certain entitlements for former first ladies as well as former presidents.

Wives of past presidents should receive particular consideration both while they are in office and after they depart, according to Aisha.

She claims that the entitlements cover things like providing cars, paying for medical care, and providing stipends.

Nobody is interested in knowing whether you are still living in the Aso Rock Villa when pressure is applied, she claimed.

The First Lady delivered a speech at the Abuja book launch for “The Journey of a Military Wife,” written by Mrs. Vickie Irabor, president of the Defense and Police Officers’ Wives Association, DEPOWA.

“I married my husband as the wife of a former president,” she remarked. In a few days, I’ll be traveling as a former president’s second wife.

“They ought to think of us as previous First Ladies. The First Ladies should be included, and we should be granted the honors that we are due as First Ladies, not just previous Presidents.

Buhari’s wife praised Irabor for the book and said: 

This fact-filled, heartfelt book will assist officers’ wives in navigating their lives.

It emphasizes the role of women as stabilizers for the country while it faces insurgencies and other security issues.

It serves as a manual and resource for military wives and emphasizes the importance of providing better assistance to military widows. The book’s insights will enable readers to understand the difficulties faced by military families.”

Predicting salaries, allowances, and perks for those holding political office falls within the purview of RMAFAC, whose mandate includes minimizing the cost of governance.

Paragraph 32(d)

The Commission has been recommending salaries and allowances for this group of public officeholders ever since it was established by Decree 49 of 1989.

Specifically, the Commission is given the authority to suggest a revenue formula suitable for public office holders under Section 32(d) of Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution.

Political office holders were promised 300 percent of their yearly basic income upon disengagement when their remuneration and that of other designated officials were last revised in 2008.

According to the Remuneration Act of 2008 documents obtained by Sunday Vanguard, the President will earn N10.54 million, or 300 percent of his yearly base salary, upon leaving office. His monthly compensation, including basic pay and benefits, is N1.2 million.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is entitled to 300 percent of his base pay, which is N1.1 million per month or N12.1 million per year. According to the RMAFAC formula, he would take N9.09 million home.

44 clergy

The Buhari administration’s 27 ministers and 17 ministers of state will also benefit from the deal.

According to a breakdown obtained by Sunday Vanguard, each senior minister is entitled to N6.08 million, while junior ministers are each given N5.87 million. Currently, there are 44 ministers.

The sum total for the departing ministers comes to N258.08 million.

This is in addition to the Senior Special Assistants (SSA) and Special Assistants’ severance compensation, which is paid to the President’s Special Advisers, who, like ministers, are members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

Analysts estimated that the severance compensation for the federal officials would cost Nigerian taxpayers billions of naira, but they were unable to pinpoint the actual number.

According to the Sunday Vanguard, the entitlements were planned for in the 2023 budget but may not be paid by the departing administration.

According to Aso Rock sources, the new administration will be responsible for paying because there is a procedure to be followed.

Additional items to keep

State governors would receive additional take-home pay even if the RMAFAC rule, which also specifies 300 percent of their annual base salary, covered their severance entitlements.

This was made feasible by numerous state legislatures throughout the years approving what is generally regarded as jumbo pensions. 

The annual basic compensation for each of the 36 state governors is N2.2 million, according to RMAFAC. This excludes a number of allowances.

However, state Houses of Assembly passed pension rules that typically compensated former governors with opulent take-home pay by relying on constitutional provisions. Outgoing governors are entitled to a life pension, automobiles, domestic helpers, and residences in their state capitals and Abuja, among other benefits, despite the RMAFC rule. 

Outrageous

 The benefits are not uniform across the states because some, particularly in the South, are widely regarded as ridiculous, 

According to these laws, in addition to the 300 percent of their yearly base wage designated by RMAFAC, 18 departing governors are also entitled to these benefits.

They are Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Nasir Bello of Niger State, Darius Ishaku of Taraba State, Aminu Masari of Katsina State, Abubakar Bello of Niger State, Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State, Simon Lalong of Plateau State, and Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State. 

Others are Badaru Abubakar, Jigawa State; Bello Matawalle, Zamfara State; Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta State; Udom Emmanuel, Akwa Ibom State; Abdullahi Ganduje, Kano State; Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu State; and Samuel Ortom, Benue State.

It was discovered that the majority of the helmsmen did not create the jumbo pension regulations; rather, they largely inherited them from their forebears.

The entitlements, according to a number of sources close to the affected authorities, would be paid after their departure. 

“As required by law, it is their right. I can assure you that Oga is unconcerned since it takes time. They should not be denied their rights by anyone. For it, they toiled. One of the sources added, “People shouldn’t perceive a problem when there is none.

Nigerians are angry that the resigning public servants’ compensation would be so expensive given the country’s dire economic state, which is brought on by worrisome inflation and a heavy debt load.

Activists criticized Buhari and other political officeholders for not rejecting the package given the country’s current suffering in separate conversations with Sunday Vanguard.

The general consensus that Buhari is making Nigerians poorer while the successors to the governors will have to deal with unpaid salaries, pensions, and debts added fuel to their rage.

Jumbo pension: an insult to Nigerians, according to SERAP

Any exorbitant sum would be considered an insult to Nigerians, according to Mr. Kolawole Oluwadare, deputy executive director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP.

“The law is unambiguous. The President is entitled to a pension under the terms of the Constitution, but it will now be decided whether the amount of the pension, which is a severance package, is suitable or not. Any amount deemed excessive will be an insult to the decent people of Nigeria, given the country’s rising public debt and widespread poverty. stated Oluwadare

They’re not deserving of it. They are leading opulent lives even while poverty ravages Nigerians, according to Debo Adeniran, chairman of the Center for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL). They don’t appear to care about how families and individuals are deteriorating.

They make life more challenging since they do not look in the direction of things that will make a typical Nigerian’s life convenient. In general, the leaders have plundered our nation’s riches far too much for them to leave with them.

Instead of leaving with a huge quantity of money at the conclusion of their underwhelming tenure, they are expected to contribute some of their gains back to the federation’s coffers. Unfortunately, the constitution gives them the authority to take advantage of the general population’s vulnerability. The wealth in our country is distributed inequitably, which widens the gap between the rich and the poor.

They essentially don’t deserve it at all. It is vulgar and unethical. Even if the law allows them the chance, they ought to have been moral in their reasoning and sympathetic with the typical Nigerian to declare that since they have already been made poor while we have been in power, we ought to prevent them from becoming poorer again after we have left office.

They don’t deserve it because they haven’t taken any action to improve the lives of the underprivileged. Only a few politicians appear to have morals, but none of them have objected to the outrageous severance payments they are giving themselves.

“They don’t deserve it because they didn’t earn it with their performances. Many people who have worked for 30 or 35 years pass away in poverty because they are unable to obtain their pension and gratuity.

Some of the civil servants who grease the wheels of advancement in governance have more than 200 years’ worth of pay, and those who were employed for four or eight years must deal with that.

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