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

Upon leaving office tomorrow, President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and ministers, among others, would go home with billions of naira as severance package. The development happening in a struggling economy has sparked outcry.

The funds represent their total disengagement benefits as prescribed by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission, RMAFAC.

Meanwhile, wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, has emphatically made a case for some entitlements for former First Ladies like former Presidents.

Aisha explained that wives of former leaders deserve special provisions while in office and when they leave.

According to her, the entitlements include vehicles, sponsored medical treatments and provision of stipends.

She said when pressure comes, nobody wants to know whether you are out of the (Aso Rock) Villa or not.

The First Lady spoke at the launching of a book in Abuja, titled: ‘The Journey of a Military Wife’, authored by the President of Defence and Police Officers’ Wives Association, DEPOWA, Mrs. Vickie Irabor.

She said: “I married my husband as wife of a former President. I am going in a few days as a wife of a former president a second time.

“They should consider us as former First Ladies. They should incorporate the First Ladies, give us some privileges that we deserve as First Ladies, not just former Presidents.”

 On his part, acting National Chairperson, Socialist Party of Nigeria, SPN, and Oyo State Coordinator of Campaign for Democratic and Workers Rights, CDWR, Mr. Abiodun Bamigboye, urged Nigerians to rise 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. All of these continue to happen because government claims it has insufficient funds to meet the needs of the people. This is condemnable and every Nigerian must speak against this kind of anti-people policy. It is on this basis that we are calling on the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress not to keep silent in the face of this kind of criminality that is to be perpetrated against the mass of the Nigerian people.”

They don’t deserve it – Adeniran

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.

“They don’t deserve it because they have not done anything to enhance the livelihood of the poor. Only some of the politicians seem to have conscience but none of them have protested the obscene award of severance allowances that they are making for themselves.

“They don’t deserve it because their performances do not earn it. Those who have worked for 30 or 35 years do not have access to their gratuity and pension and many of them die in poverty. “Those who were engaged in four or eight years have to go with more than 200 years earnings of some of the civil servants who oil the wheel of progress of governance