Severance package is the money paid to lawmakers and their aides at the end of their four-year tenure. The two presiding officers of the Senate reportedly will share N14.38million between them, and their House of Representatives counterparts N14.29million. Each of the remaining 107 senators will go with N6.08million, while each of the 358 other representatives will get N5.96million. The severance package of each of the 6,375 legislative aides depends on their salary grade.

Besides the cash, the 469 lawmakers, including those re-elected, and some of their aides will go with their official vehicles estimated at about N5.5billion. They are also entitled to go home with some of their office equipment and consumables, including refrigerators, laptops and personal computers, among other items.

The eight NASS took out N23.678billion in severance packages for members of that legislature, and it might well be argued that inflationary factors informed the N7billion increase for the outgoing assembly. Besides, during the consideration of the 2023 budget in both chambers of the national legislature late last year, the presiding officers had explained that the N30.2billion vote would as well cover the inauguration of lawmakers into the 10th NASS.

Since severance pay for political office holders typically get captured in legislations like the Appropriation Act and, in some cases, ad hoc legislations, the ground for contesting the legality of the benefit may be tenuous. Not so the morality. In a verdict delivered in 2019, the Court of Appeal declared that payment of severance allowances to elected or appointed public office holders is morally wrong. The court, in a judgment on an appeal marked CA/A/810/2017 filed by the Kogi State Government, held that the fact that elected public office holders and political appointees were paid huge sums as monthly salaries and other allowances while in office makes it morally wrong for them to demand gratuity or severance allowance for holding such an office for just certain number of years.

The background to that verdict was litigation by some members of the Kogi State Local Government Service Commission (KGSLGSC), who served from 2013 to 2017, against the state government over their severance benefits. The former council officials had filed a suit before the National Industrial Court (NIC) in Abuja against the state governor, secretary to the state government, attorney-general and commissioner for justice and the Kogi State Local Government Service Commission. They claimed that N55.4million ought to be paid them as total of various sums due to them as arrears of salaries for 17 months, leave bonuses for four years and severance payment for the end of their tenure; and they asked the court to compel the state government to pay them the severance package.

Rather than deliver judgment in that case after taking arguments on the originating summons and preliminary objection by the defendants, the presiding judge of the NIC, Justice R. B. Hastrup, ordered the parties to file more pleadings. This made the Kogi State government to approach the Court of Appeal. In its verdict, the three-member panel of the appellate court faulted payment of severance allowance, pension or gratuity to political office holders and political appointees, saying the practice was morally wrong, amounted to gross social injustice and could not be justified in the context of the nation’s socio-economic realities.

In the lead judgment, Justice Emmanuel Agim said it was unjust for political office holders who helped themselves to public funds while in office to claim entitlement to pension and severance allowances. According to him, it is unjustifiable for few politicians who hold office for not more than eight years to allocate huge public funds to themselves in the name of pension and severance package, whereas civil servants who committed most of their active years to the service of the nation are denied their retirement benefits. Justice Agim said inter alia: “The fact that elected pubic office holders and political appointees are paid huge amounts of money as monthly salaries and other forms of allowances while in office is common knowledge in Nigeria and is not open question…Meanwhile, career civil servants who have served this country or their states or local governments all their life can hardly collect their pensions and gratuity when retired. They are subjected to contributory pension schemes in which they contribute part of their meagre monthly salaries that are always paid in arrears while in service to be able to earn pension and gratuity upon retirement. Political appointees and elected public office holders who do not work as long and as hard as career civil servants quickly get paid huge severance allowances upon leaving office in addition to the huge wealth they acquired while holding such offices and without having been subjected to contributory pension schemes.” His lordship added: “It cannot be justified in the context of our present social realities; it amounts to gross social injustice.” Other members of the judicial panel namely Justices Abubakar Datti Yahaya and Tinuade Akomolafe-Wilson concurred with the lead judgment.

There are no records indicating that this verdict has been overridden by the Supreme Court, hence it should be the extant position of law in this country today. Huge severance packages are an extension of excessive reward attached to political offices in Nigeria and can best be redressed by downsizing the reward system, or building up economy so more people can get a lot more than they do presently from the common wealth. After all, as they say,’ what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander’.

•National Assembly