Goje, RMAFC And The Politics Of Pension

Goje, RMAFC And The Politics Of Pension
No governor in recent times attracted so much attention to himself like the Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Danjuma Goje. Leadership newspaper was the first to bring this governor to limelight by mentioning him as one of the most hated men in Nigeria based on reasons they cited at that time. Then the issue of the former Gombe State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Hashidu, came up. The state government promised to pay him his pension and related benefits, on condition that he withdrew his petition against the governor. Later, Goje paid Hashidu that money, including a package of two brand new cars, a holiday to his place of choice everywhere in the world every year, etc.
But of all these, nothing has gained more attention, created so much noise, prompted debates in the media - for or against, like the issue of pension payment which the State House of Assembly approved for Goje and his deputy. No doubt, Alhaji Danjuma Goje remains the best thing that has ever happened to this young state in its ten years of existence. He transformed this rather rural state to a cosmopolitan one, extending his gestures even to the remotest parts of the state. Goje in the last five years was able to solve the hitherto intractable Gombe town water problem, establish a university, build an international airport and constructed numerous roads. To his critics, Goje is described as harsh and unusually firm in his determined efforts to develop Gombe State.
Goje is a man of the people whose determination to move Gombe State forward is unquestionable. He is a leader who does not mind to break conventions in his eager race of leaving behind achievements. This determination and the strong desire to make history earned him enemies within and outside the state.
However, his recent actions concerning the pension payment controversy made his critics to find a window or opportunity to say all kinds of things on his person. The pension payment also called to question, according to his critics, his loyalty to the electorate. The critics’ assertions were substantiated by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC), which declared his collection of pension while in service illegal. The RMFAC went ahead to call on the governor and his deputy to refund the N200 million they collected or gave themselves. Although the duo defended their position through a bill of the State House of Assembly which was signed into law as the Pension Payment Amendment Bill, the State House of Assembly, through their speaker, said the pension collection is yet to be defended.
Governor Goje and His deputy, Dr John Lazarus, no doubt, are not pensioners. The Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English defined a pensioner as a person receiving a pension, which is a regular payment made by the state to people of above the official retirement age and to some widows and disabled people. It can also be a regular payment made during a pension retirement from an investment fund to which that person or his employer had contributed during their working life. The dictionary went further to explain that to pension someone off is to dismiss him from employment and pay him a pension.
By virtue of being a serving public servant, Governor Goje is not a pensioner, likewise is his deputy. The section of the constitution quoted by the Gombe State House of Assembly to justify its action states categorically that ‘provision may be made by a law of a House of Assembly for the grant of a pension or gratuity to, or in respect of, a person who had held office as governor or deputy governor and was not removed from office as a result of impeachment. As long as the money is paid under the pension clause, I am afraid the action of the Assembly is wrong’. With all due respect, Speaker, Sir, your actions, in my opinion, are not justifiable. Pensions are paid at the end of one’s tenure, or when he retires from service.
I strongly believe that Governor Goje will not allow this pension controversy to derail his wonderful achievements in the last five years. I want to believe that his action, that is, of collecting the N200 million, was in good faith and was made based on the assumption that it was legal. Although Speaker Manga Bojude, in an advertorial noted that only a court of competent jurisdiction that can fully fault a law passed by the legislature, the Court of Public Opinion supersedes all the ‘Courts Of Competent Jurisdiction’. The legislators themselves found themselves in the Assembly through the people’s mandate. Their actions and inactions are judged by what the public perceives as right and wrong. While respecting the decision of the Assembly is amending the Gombe State Executive Pension (Amendment Law) 2008, section 4(1), which the House relied on, it is equally important for the House of know that the money is coming from public treasures - the tax payers’ money.
I hope as I drop my pen, His Excellency will refund this money, because, as I know him as a person, Goje is an elderstatesman that respect his electorate and is a strong believer in the rule of law.
Kabiru Danladi,
Lawanti Village,
KM25, Along Gombe-Bauchi Road,
Akko L.G.A, Gombe State.