THE Senate, yesterday, jacked up President Olusegun Obasanjo’s severance gratuity as it passed a retroactive salary adjustment for political and judicial office holders backdated to February 2007.

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Under the new dispensation, the basic annual salary of the President is now to N3.514 million as against the former N1.405. This is besides other allowances including hardship allowance, bringing the total remuneration of the President in a year to N10.899 million.

The total remuneration of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of Service, Ministers was upped from N6.15 million to N15.907 million.

The remuneration package for ministers, which includes provision for domestic staff, newspapers, personal assistant, is, however, exclusive of a N6.079 million package to be received whenever a minister’s appointment is terminated or he resigns from office.

The annual basic salary of the Chief Justice of the Federation was also increased from N1.349 million to N3.364 million ahead of the total basic pay of the Vice President of the country which was lifted from N1.212 million to N3.031 million.

Senator Zainab Kure, Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Planning, Economic Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, who presented the report of her Committee on the new salary proposals to the Senate, told

Vanguard that the new salary scheme was adopted to enable judicial and presidency officials enjoy what the legislators have been enjoying.

“In February last year, it was passed through resolution and the legislative arm started enjoying the new scale but the judiciary and the executive arms did not enjoy it and that is why we had to pass it,” she said.

The bill entitled: “A bill for an Act to amend the certain political, public and judicial office holders (salaries and allowances, etc) Act 2002 and for other related purposes” was first presented to the last Senate.

It was forwarded to the Senate by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the body charged with the duty of preparing the remuneration package for political and judicial office holders.

As the Senate debated the bill, several Senators rose to support the retroactive implementation of the bill. Among them were Senators Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello (PDP, Ogun), George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers) and Dahiru Kuta (PDP, Niger). They argued that the Senate should uphold the retroactive implementation of the bill or Senators should themselves return the benefits they collected under the new scheme.

The Senate by a voice vote adopted the retroactive implementation of the bill from February 2007.

In effect, President Obasanjo whose original severance package was N4.218 million would now receive N10.542 million besides other adjustments to his salary between February 2007 and when he exited in May.

In approving the new salary package, the Senate also removed discrepancies in the remuneration of ministers and ministers of state following the submission of Senator Ike Ekweremadu (PDP, Enugu West) who said all cabinet members were representatives of equal states of the federation.

The Senate also removed provisions made for the payment of the President’s Speech Writer on the basis that the office was not recognised in the Constitution.

Senate’s spokesman, in justifying the increase which also applies to judicial officers, said: “It will help to enhance the independence of our judicial officers and members of certain crucial commissions and agencies in the country.

“It is something that we are very proud of because we don’t want a situation where our judicial officers are not enjoying something what has been envisioned by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission.”

Senators currently earn a basic annual salary of N2,000, 026 per annum besides other allowances graduated along the same scale as ministers.

Senate apologises for delay in budget passage

Also yesterday, the Senate tendered a formal apology to Nigerians over the delay in the passage of the 2008 budget.

The Senate apology came as the legislative body said it was resolved to push through the best budget ever for the country with a focus on a zero deficit spending plan in the fiscal year.

Senate spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze, tendered the apology at the end of yesterday’s session when the Senate Committee on Appropriation failed to produce the report of the Committee on the 2008 budget.

At the session, Senator Ahmed Maccido, Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, standing in for the Committee chairman, Senator Iyiola Omisore, said the Committee was yet to complete its work on the budget.

The chairman of the Committee on Finance, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, while calling for consideration from Senators said continued work on the budget was aimed at giving the country a zero deficit budget.

Senator Sani Yerima (ANPP, Zamfara) responding to a comment by Senator Manzo Anthony (PDP, Taraba) that Nigerians would be displeased if the budget was not passed this week, said the Senate Committee was working on producing the best budget ever for the country.

“I think this is going to be the best budget that will be passed by the National Assembly. Indeed, most of the revenue being captured in this budget has in the past not been captured,” he said as he co rraborated Makarfi’s claims of an effort towards zero deficit budget.

Responding to the submissions, the President of the Senate while noting that Nigerians were waiting for the budget said anything worth doing should be done well. He charged the Committee on Appropriation to hasten its work even as he agreed not to give a time limit for the passage of the budget.

Following the session, Senate spokesman said: “The delay is regretted and we have to apologise to Nigerians and assure them that the budget will be passed very soon and when we pass the budget, the budget will reflect the aspirations of our people.

“The budget will capture the projects and amenities that touch directly on the lives of our people. We want to let you know that there is no intention on the part of the National Assembly to delay the budget, we are all trying to do what is right and you can see that the process of preparing the budget this year has been unprecedented.

“We probed and pried into areas that were not pried into in the past and we thank God that we have a balanced budget and as some of our colleagues have said, the necessity to balance the budget was also one of the reasons that have necessitated the delay,” he said.