Rotimi Fasan’s pension claims for Babatunde Fashola
At least two former Muhammadu Buhari administration ministers—Babatunde Raji Fashola of the Works and Housing ministry and Rotimi Amaechi of the Transportation ministry, respectively—have been sharing their thoughts on their lives since leaving office almost eight months ago. It should be mentioned that these two former ministers were also two-term governors of Lagos and Rivers, respectively. They both had fascinating things to say during their most recent Arise Television interview.
One of the main implications of the conversation with Raji Fashola—the subject of this article—was his assertion that his monthly pension is merely N577, 000. For his tenure as Lagos State’s governor from 2007 to 2014, he was given this pension. At first glance, fifty thousand naira or so would not seem like much to a former governor. For any previous governor, let alone one from the richest state in the union, it would seem insignificant. However, N577, 000 is a princely amount when compared to the slave pay of what is known as the national minimum wage.
It’s important to note that Mr. Fashola is a serious person. Despite the challenges he had in leading the Ministry of Power—the enemy of many politicians—he was one of the best-performing governors and ministers. Regardless of amount of dedication, everybody serving in the government was subjected to the general cloud of incompetence projected by the Buhari administration. Despite the negative perceptions that many Nigerians still hold of the government during a period of extreme poverty, Fashola was one of Buhari’s most capable and diligent ministers.
It was a period of time that would go down in national history as one of the most hopeless. The misery that started when Buhari chose to sit on his palm during the country’s devastation by terrorist herders, insurgent groups, and homicidal bandits culminated with the currency confiscation policy. Given this, it is difficult to find many good things to say about the public officials or political appointees who worked for the Buhari administration. Fashola should be given careful consideration since he was one of the exceptions.
If his allegation that he receives a pension of just over half a million naira per month is to be taken seriously, it must be stated and made clear. especially considering that his statements might be used as a pretext by dishonest politicians to commit crimes against the populace. Former public officials, in particular governors, have come under fire for allegedly receiving huge pensions in addition to being accused of receiving double payments for their corrupt enrichment of the state they once oversaw through their employment as senators of Nigeria. It is no secret that many of them have made the Senate, and particularly the National Assembly, their retirement home.
While Mr. Fashola is not one of these politicians, his comments regarding his pension ignore the fact that Lagos State was among the first to legislate large pension payments to former governors as early as 2007, as Mr. Femi Falana recently explained. The legislation offered incredibly generous benefits, including vacations abroad, personal security, brand-new cars that must be replaced on a regular basis, domestic staff, retirement homes in Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, payments for the governors’ and their families’ medical expenses, and more. Once every three years, I believe.
These are the extra benefits on top of the cash payment that Fashola neglected to disclose. Nigerians were incensed when the legislation authorizing this was revealed because they could not comprehend how or why one person could be entitled to all of these benefits for only eight years of service. The Lagos State Government has yet to provide these benefits, merely covering the financial part, maybe in response to the outrage from Nigerians. Does that mean, though, that it won’t be paid in the end? It is not true that Mr. Fashola has been living off the generous pension that the former governors of Lagos State received; rather, it tells us that whether now or later, Fashola and the other former governors of the state will receive what is rightfully theirs by law. Although he may have the moral fortitude to turn down a generous pension offer if it is made, can anyone say the same about his predecessors and successors in office? What about his counterparts in other states who also receive pensions that are obtained illegally? Are we to accept that their pensions are far less than what the law requires of them?
It appears that Mr. Fashola is implying that public officials’ pension demands are overstated. Is it accurate to say that?
The pension benefits granted to previous governors were modeled after legislation enacted by the legislatures of 22 other states, including Lagos, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers. These were individuals who served in government for a maximum of eight years, and most, if not all, of them were not quite sixty years old when they left. However, most Nigerians would have turned 60 or worked for 35 to 40 years in the service by the time they are eligible for a pension.
These are the details that were omitted from Mr. Fashola’s interview allegations. His pension of nearly half a million naira per month exceeds the monthly salary of a university professor who has served for over forty years. The devaluation that followed the harmonization of the foreign exchange market has caused the naira to plummet, making it exchange to the US dollar at approximately 1,400. N577, 000 would go a long way toward meeting the needs of the average Nigerian worker, whose demand for a minimum wage of two hundred thousand naira has been largely denied by the government.
All things considered, Mr. Fashola’s monthly pension may seem small for such a large guy, but in modern-day Nigeria, it is worth a king’s ransom. Reviewing some of the non-cash benefits associated with it is essential to reflect the hard reality that Nigerians face and guarantee that the pension of a governor or president, like that of a low-income public servant, is proportional with the quantity of labor completed. The rest is just sanctioned stealing.
