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Buhari, Osinbajo, Others Criticized For Accepting Severance Package
President Buhari and other political office holders have faced severe criticism from activists for accepting the severance package.
The activists argue that the decision is insensitive given the current hardships faced by Nigerians.
Many believe that President Buhari’s tenure has contributed to a rise in poverty, adding to the frustration and hardship being faced by the people.
Furthermore, the incoming governors will have to tackle challenges such as unpaid salaries and pensions, along with growing debts, further exacerbating the situation.
In response to the situation, Mr. Kolawole Oluwadare, the Deputy Executive Director of Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), emphasized that any exorbitant amount allocated as a pension would be seen as a direct insult to the Nigerian people.
“The law is clear. For the President, he is entitled to pension by the provision of the constitution but the quantum of the pension, which is a severance package, is what will now be considered appropriate or not. In the face of Nigeria’s growing public debt and growing poverty in the land, any amount that is considered too much will be an affront to the good people of Nigeria”, Oluwadare said
Expressing her firm disapproval, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, the President of Women Arise for Change Initiative and the Campaign for Democracy, asserted that this unacceptable practice must cease.
“There are multiple viewpoints to this sick culture. First, there is the angle of those who were not voted into offices. For instance, appointees should not get a kobo. Second, of those voted into office, the President and Vice President should be protected and granted a level of comfort after office because they must have taken decisions that might expose them to danger in their post-office life.
“The cost should be debated before approval. It is so obscene that people who had retired and collected benefits are again retiring as public office holders and yet collecting jumbo packages for lacklustre performances in high office.
“In the meantime, regular people who didn’t steal, kill or destroy are dropping dead in pension queues. And the pension is miserable. Yet they worked for 35 years or till they hit retirement age. But here comes someone who has been here for eight years. He gets rewarded afterwards till death. This nonsense must stop.”
Mr. Abiodun Bamigboye, the acting National Chairperson of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) and Oyo State Coordinator of Campaign for Democratic and Workers Rights (CDWR), urged the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to speak out and not stay silent regarding this issue.
He called upon Nigerians to unite and collectively oppose the current situation, urging them to take a firm stance against it.
Bamigboye said: “It is not only wrong, it is condemnable. I think every well-meaning Nigerian must speak against it to ensure they drop such an anti-people plan. None of the political office holders deserve to earn a single Kobo after vacating their respective offices. These are the set of Nigerians who live in opulence.
“They receive huge salaries and allowances while in office. It is not like a normal civil servant that survives on poor pay, which is the minimum wage of N30, 000. If there are Nigerians who deserve a fat pension after leaving office, it should be the Nigerian workers who earn N30, 000 as minimum wage and not political office holders who are entitled to millions as salaries and allowances while in office.
“The huge amount of money further underscores that the interest of the poor working people is always the least on the priority list of Nigeria’s pro-capitalist government.
“If not, given all the crises people are facing in the country, it should be the last thing. As we speak, the Academic Staff Union of Nigeria, ASUU, demand has not been attended to. A few days ago, resident doctors just suspended their strike. Our refinery is comatose.
Chairman, Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said: “They are living a life of opulence even as poverty is ravaging Nigerians. They seem not to bother about the degenerating state of families and individuals.
“They do not look in the direction of things that would make life convenient for an average Nigerian, they make life more difficult. “Generally, the leaders have pillaged the resources of this country too much for them to go away with it.
“They are supposed to return some of their earnings to the coffers of the federation instead of going away with a huge sum of money at the end of their lacklustre tenure. Unfortunately, the constitution provides them the power to exploit the weakness of the mass of the Nigerian people. “It is a lopsided distribution of this country’s wealth that widens the gap between the rich and the poor.
“Basically, they don’t deserve it at all. It is obscene and immoral. Even if the law gives them the opportunity, they should have been moralistic in their thinking and empathise with the average Nigerian to say that they have been impoverished while we were in office, we should not impoverish them further even after we exit office.” He added
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has criticized the federal government’s plan to secure an additional N1.7 trillion loan through Eurobonds to cover a shortfall in the 2024 budget, describing the borrowing as unsustainable and harmful to Nigeria’s economy.
In a statement shared on Thursday via his X (formerly Twitter) handle, Atiku accused the Bola Tinubu-led administration of burdening Nigerians with debt while failing to provide clear answers about the country’s fiscal challenges.
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He also faulted the National Assembly for enabling what he called a “voracious appetite” for loans.
The former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate expressed alarm over a recent World Bank report ranking Nigeria as the third most indebted country to the International Development Association (IDA), calling the development troubling.
“The recent report released by the World Bank, showing Nigeria as the third most indebted country to the International Development Association (IDA), is very concerning,” Atiku stated.
He raised further concerns about the government’s decision to benchmark the proposed loan at an exchange rate of 1 USD to N800, despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s official rate being over N1,600.
“What makes this particular loan proposal even more concerning is that it is benchmarked at the exchange rate of 1 USD to N800, whereas the current exchange rate from the Central Bank of Nigeria stands at over N1,600 to 1 USD,” he said.
Atiku questioned the need for additional borrowing, given the government’s earlier claims of record-high revenue collection.
“In July this year, Tinubu boasted that the FIRS and Customs under his watch had collected all-time high revenues to finance the budget. Why are they still borrowing?” he said
He accused the government of a lack of transparency, describing the borrowing spree as detrimental to Nigerians already struggling under economic hardship.
“There is something that they are not telling Nigerians, even as they are being crushed by a combination of their failed trial-and-error policies and loan rackets.”
Atiku also referenced a report by BudgIT, a budget monitoring group, which criticized the 2024 budget for its inefficiencies.
He alleged that corruption, rather than infrastructure or development needs, was driving the government’s borrowing decisions.
“These loans are powered by corruption and not for infrastructure and development needs. This voracious appetite for humongous loans is deeply concerning,” he said.
Reflecting on Nigeria’s financial history, Atiku lamented the return to significant foreign indebtedness just years after former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration cleared the country’s debt.
“It is agonizing to see that just a few years after the Obasanjo administration took us out of foreign indebtedness, we are today back at the top spot in the same conundrum,” he stated.
He called for a more cautious approach to borrowing, urging the government to prioritize fiscal responsibility and transparency to avoid worsening Nigeria’s economic challenges.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken a historic step, issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The charges include crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed during Israel’s recent assault on Gaza.
In a detailed statement, the ICC accused the Israeli leaders of “intentionally and knowingly depriving the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
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The ICC’s move marks a significant escalation in international scrutiny of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu and Gallant are alleged to have orchestrated policies that caused severe harm to the civilian population in Gaza, leading to widespread condemnation from human rights organizations.
Alongside the charges against Israeli officials, the ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif. Deif has long been a central figure in Hamas’s military operations. Israel’s military claims to have killed him in a July airstrike, although this has not been independently verified.
The warrants highlight growing calls for accountability amid the ongoing conflict in the region. The ICC’s actions are likely to provoke heated debate and may complicate diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the crisis.
With the warrants issued, global attention now turns to how the international community will respond and whether any practical steps will be taken to enforce them.
Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State has inaugurated a 12-member committee tasked with recovering government vehicles reportedly in private hands.
The committee, led by Kelly Okungbowa, has been given a two-week mandate to retrieve the vehicles and ensure their return to the state government.
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Speaking during the inauguration ceremony in Benin City, Governor Okpebholo emphasized the importance of accountability in the management of public resources.
He urged the committee to carry out its assignment thoroughly and within the bounds of the law.
In his response, Okungbowa expressed gratitude to the governor for entrusting the team with the assignment, vowing to deliver results within the stipulated timeframe.
“A lot of vehicles used by the past administration are missing, as those in custody of the vehicles have refused to return them,” Okungbowa said.
“The governor deemed it fit to inaugurate us today with a mandate to recover all government vehicles in private hands.”
The committee, which includes representatives from Edo’s three senatorial districts, is set to investigate and recover the vehicles based on credible intelligence already at their disposal.
“We already have vital information regarding some persons still holding government vehicles,” Okungbowa stated. “We will do the job according to the law, and both the government and the people will be satisfied with the outcome.”
He also called on members of the public to assist the committee by providing information about any government vehicles that may still be in private possession.
“We want to appeal to members of the public who might be aware of anyone still keeping government vehicles in their houses to please inform us to enable the committee to recover such for the Edo State Government,” Okungbowa said.
The committee’s vice chairman, Rt. Hon. Victor Edoror, a former Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, will work alongside other members to ensure the success of the initiative. The public can reach the committee at 08110165121.
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