Former President Goodluck Jonathan; his deputy,
Namadi Sambo; immediate past ministers and
presidential aides as well as non-returning
federal lawmakers will wait till next year before
collecting their severance allowances,
investigation by The PUNCH has shown.
Their severance allowances as contained in the
remuneration package put together by the
Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal
Commission is valued at about N3.24bn.
Sources at the Ministry of Finance in Abuja
confided in our correspondent on Thursday that
the allowances of the political office holders that
left office last weekend were not captured in
this year’s budget.
The 2015 budget, which was passed by the
National Assembly and signed by Jonathan on
April 28, makes a provision of N2.3bn for
“entitlements of former Presidents/Heads of
state and Vice Presidents/Chiefs of General
Staff.”
Explaining the reason why the severance pay
was not captured in this year’s budget, the
official said as of last year when the 2015
budget was being prepared, the outcome of the
April 2015 elections could not be ascertained.
He said since the outcome of the elections could
not be predicted, there was no way the Budget
Office could have determined the number of
political office holders that would not be re-
elected.
The official added, “You will recall that the 2015
budget was prepared sometime last year and
during the budget preparation, the elections had
not been held.
“So it would be wrong to include the severance
package of political office holders in the budget
because as of the time the budget was
prepared, these people were still holding
political offices.
“Secondly, including their severance package
before the elections were conducted would
mean that we were pre-empting the outcome of
a political process.
“So what we do is to wait for the outcomes of
elections and on the strength of this, we can
know the number of people that have left office
and those re-elected.
“As for those political office holders that are
leaving office this year, their severance package
would be included in the 2016 budget which
would be prepared later in the year.”
Under the severance package put together by
RMAFC, Jonathan is entitled to 300 per cent of
his annual basic salary.
The President’s annual basic salary is put at N3,
514,705 and therefore his severance allowance
will be N10, 544,115 after May 29.
The severance allowance is without prejudice to
his other constitutional entitlements as a former
head of government.
Similarly, Vice-President Sambo, who left office
the same day as Jonathan, is entitled to 300 per
cent of his annual basic salary put at N3,
031,572.50. This means that his severance
allowance after May 29 is N9, 094,717.50.
For having held the office of vice-president,
Sambo also has some constitutional entitlements
and perks.
About 76 senators are not returning to the
National Assembly either because they did not
stand for election or because they lost their bids
to return. They are however entitled to
N462,019,200 at the expiration of their tenure
on June 5.
Like Jonathan and Sambo, they are entitled to
300 per cent of their annual basic salaries as
severance allowances. This amounts to N6,
079,200 per senator.
In the House of Representatives, about 290
members are not returning to the 8th National
Assembly to be proclaimed into existence by
Buhari on June 5.
Each of the members is entitled to N5,
955,637.50 as severance allowance. This means
that the 290 members will be paid N1,
727,134,875.
The former ministers, on the other hand, will be
collecting a total of N253, 967,212.5. There were
42 ministers in Jonathan’s cabinet. Thirty one of
them were senior ministers and 11 ministers of
state.
Each of the former senior ministers is entitled to
N6, 079,200 as severance allowance while each
of the ministers of state will receive N5,
872,740.
This means that collectively, the senior ministers
will get N188, 455,200 while collectively, the
erstwhile ministers of state will receive N65,
512,012.5 .
The aides to the former President comprising
special advisers, senior special assistants and
special assistants will get N775, 207,125.
They were 23 of them that worked with the
president as special advisers. Apart from this
number, however, there were several others
estimated at 110, who worked with the vice-
president, the wife of the former President and
special advisers that were designated either as
senior special assistants or special assistants to
the President.
This means that there were about 133 aides to
the president and each of them is entitled to
300 per cent of their annual basic salary which
amounts to N5, 828,625.
http://www.punchng.com/news/no-n3-2bn-
severance-pay-for-jonathan-others-till-2016/
