Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, in a lecture he delivered
yesterday at the investiture of Mr. Dele Ojogbede as President of
Rotary Club, Ikoyi in Lagos, said, it is illegal for former governors,
who have been placed on life pension in their states, to also earn
salaries in the National Assembly.
He also said that lawmakers should not be paid their full salaries and
allowances if they don’t sit for the mandatory 181 days before going on a
seven-month recess.
Falana counselled the Federal Government on what to do with those undermining the anti-corruption war.
In regards to
former governors in the Senate, Falana said:
โIt is high time the Federal Government stopped the payment of salaries
and allowances to former governors who are in the senate. Since they are
on pension for life, it is illegal to continue to pay them salaries and
allowances at the same time.โ
He added that none of the 469 lawmakers in the National Assembly had
justification for the entitlements they collected in the first
legislative year under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
He said:
โThe APC-led National Assembly has also engaged in collecting jumbo
emoluments for services not rendered to the nation.
โWhereas Section 63 of the Constitution provides that the Senate and the
House of Representatives shall each sit for not less than 181 days in a
year, Section 68 thereof states that any legislator who fails to attend
the proceedings of the Senate for less than one third of the required
number of days shall automatically lose his or her seat.
โFor the first legislative year which ended on June 9, the Seventh
session of the National Assembly did not meet the constitutional
requirement. Specifically, due to incessant recesses, the House of
Representatives sat for only 104 days while the Senate sat for 96 days.
This means that the Senate sat for barely 50 per cent of the required
sitting period.
โIndeed, some of the senators who had to attend criminal courts where
they are standing trial for corrupt practices did not seat for up to 70
days throughout the legislative year.
The Senate was actually shut down on a number of occasions to enable the
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki to attend the proceedings of the
Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) where he is standing trial for false
declaration of assets. And in solidarity with him, a number of senators
abandoned their duties to accompany him to the tribunal.
โSince the labour policy of โno work no payโ is applicable to all public
officers the legislators ought not to have been paid when they did not
perform any legislative duty.
โIn other words, having failed to sit for the mandatory period of 181
days the legislators were not entitled to payment of and allowances for
the whole legislative year.
โHaving been paid full emoluments when they failed to sit for the
required number of days, the legislators ought to refund some money to
the treasury.
โIn the circumstance, the Accountant-General of the Federation should
ensure that the legislators are made to refund the money collected for
the number of days they failed to sit in the National Assembly.โ
Source: The Nation
