LEKE BAIYEWU with agency report
Some senators on Saturday demanded
immunity and life pension for presiding
officers of the National Assembly after
their tenure in office.
They made the proposals at a-two day
retreat on Constitution Review organised
by the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on
Constitution Review in Lagos, the News
Agency of Nigeria reports.
The retreat was tagged, ‘Towards
Ensuring Governance Accountability in
Nigerian federalism.’
According to them, presiding officers, who
should enjoy life pension, are President of
the Senate, Deputy President of Senate,
Speaker of the House of Representatives
and Deputy Speaker of House of
Representatives.
The lawmakers also said the presiding
officers in the legislature ought to enjoy
immunity since the executive and judiciary
are enjoying it.
The Deputy President of the Senate, Sen.
Ike Ekweremadu, spoke in favour of the
proposal for the pension.
Ekweremadu, who the Chairman, Senate
Ad hoc Committee on the Review of 1999
Constitution, stressed that it was
necessary for the presiding officers to
enjoy such benefits.
He said, “This has nothing to do with an
individual. It is about the institution. Let
us not politicise it. Nobody elected the
Chief Justice of Nigeria but he enjoys
pension. But if we cheapen our own
institution, so be it. Let us not make this a
personal thing.”
Sen. Stella Oduah (PDP-Anambra) also
said there was no reason why legislators
should not enjoy such benefits when
other arms of government enjoyed it.
She said, “The executive enjoy it. Let us
stand by our leaders. They should enjoy
this benefit. They act on behalf of us.
They are equal to the executive and
judiciary and should therefore enjoy the
same benefit.”
Also, Sen. Ahmed Yerima (APC-Zamfara)
said after being elected by all the
lawmakers and their constituencies,
lawmakers should enjoy pension.
“Governors, who spend just four years
enjoy it, so presiding officers should enjoy
it too,’’ he stated.
However, Leader of the Senate, Sen. Ali
Ndume, spoke against the proposal.
According to him, the case of the state
governors and their deputies is different
as they are elected by the public.
“But we elect our principal officers, to me,
I believe that the benefits of the Office of
the Senate President and other principal
officers are too much. They are just one
among equals.
“I am against any excessive privileges
given to the senate president or the
speaker. All of us were elected. If we are
doing anything, it should be for all
members of the National Assembly,”
Ndume said.
Also, the Senate Minority Leader, Sen.
Godswill Akpabio, opposed the
suggestion.
He said, “The governor of a state and the
president cannot stay in office for more
than two terms. But a senator can stay in
office for 35 years.”
In her submission, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu of
the APC, who represents Lagos-Central,
stated that principal officers had had
enough.
“Principal Officers drive fleet of cars and
they have other entitlements. They should
not earn extra money when they leave
office.
“In the last (8th) assembly, we in the
minority tried to raise our voice against it.
You are first, second and third among
equals. Some of us do not even have cars
but principal officers have so many. I
think we should drop that idea,” she said
On immunity clause for principal officers
of the federal legislature, 21 lawmakers
voted for it favour while 15 voted against
it, NAN reports.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on
Works, Kabiru Gaya, said the essence of
immunity was to guard some public office
holders against any form of distraction
while discharging their duties.
He said, “There are three tiers of
government and only two arms enjoy
immunity. See what is happening to the
President of the Senate now (Bukola
Saraki, who is standing trial at the Code of
Conduct Tribunal for alleged false
declaration of assets).
“We are not saying the case in court
should be stopped. But even yesterday,
we read in the papers that there is a fresh
case of forgery of Senate Standing Rule
against the presiding officers and some
other persons and all is to destabilise us.’’
Ndume also supported the proposal for
immunity for all presiding officers of the
National Assembly. He however argued
that such immunity should be limited to
civil offences committed by the officers.
“For criminal issues (offences), there
should be no immunity, but for civil
offences, there should be immunity.
Whoever it is that is involved in a criminal
matter should be prosecuted,’’ he noted.
In his submission, Akpabio proposed that
all National Assembly members and state
Houses of Assembly members should
have immunity.
He said elected officers, who were saddled
with the responsibility of ensuring good
governance, should be allowed to carry
out their functions without any form of
interference.
Akpabio said, “I propose that all principal
officers of the House of Assembly, House
of Representatives and Senate, should
enjoy immunity like the executive. So, all
parliamentarians who have criminal cases
can be invested but they should serve
their punishment after office.”
However, the Deputy Senate Leader, Bala
Ibn N’Allah, argued that Nigerians might
misconstrue the proposal for immunity for
the legislature to mean that they were
arrogating so much power to themselves.
He suggested total removal of immunity
from all arms of government, saying, “Let
us remove immunity from everyone and
let there be balance. If you give immunity
to everybody, a legislator may rape a lady
and wait to finish his tenure before being
prosecuted because he has immunity.”
At the retreat, the federal lawmakers
agreed on rotation of governorship
positions among different ethnic groups in
states.
They arrived at the consensus, with 15
lawmakers voting in favour of the
proposal and seven voted against it.
The lawmakers also proposed that
independent candidates should be allowed
to vie for political offices and voted
against Diaspora voting.
Similarly, the senators voted against the
continuous operation of joint account
between the local and state governments.
After a poll on the proposal, 24
lawmakers voted in favour of financial
autonomy for local governments, while six
lawmakers supported the continuation of
the joint account.


http://www.punchng.com/senators-demand-life-pension-immunity-saraki-dogara-others/

There is nothing we won't surely hear from these polithifians..




God, please liberate Nigeria, you are the one that liberated the World of the Nazis, I beg of you...

Life pension ko death sentence ni...

Give it to the teachers, force men and doctors... not dis awon olori nla

These were the same bonobo monkeys saying yesterday that the power of the president to assent to bills before they become laws should be watered. The reason behind that isn't so difficult even for the least politically savvy of us to deduce- they want a system where they wield such powers they could actually apportion our private lives to themselves.

Tell me what exactly is wrong with these people. Haven't they insulted us so much already with the cars they bought themselves under the prevailing austerity period??

Frankly, as far as I know, the only Senate president we've had since '99 that is worth that title is Ken Nnamani. The rest of them are just opportunistic vagabonds- imagine suggesting a life pension for Saraki... Smh.

If Sheik Buhari wants to hide under d immunity clause to evade prosecution from his certificate forgery,the same privilege should be accorded the senate president.

Na wah oh.. These people go kill us as a country oh.. When it comes to issue like this, their unity is baffling. Nothing like PDP or APC. Infact, those that promised us change will suspend the change talk just to rob us blind. The problem with Nigeria was never PDP, the problem with Nigeria is the painful facts that all our politicians are the same. They never cared about us, it was all about power and the Benjamins

Make dem kukumq give their whole family life pension. Hediotic people

The reasons why the emergence of Saraki and Ekweremadu as prinicipal officers was opposed by APC will soon dawn on Nigerians.
Wailers how far?