Rauf Aregbesola, the out-going two-term governor of Osun State, said a few days ago that he did not collect any salaries in his eight years in office. I could not hail him for his public-spiritedness because it struck me as a violation of our labour laws. The law does not permit anyone to work for free.
The good book makes that point clear with its unambiguous declaration that the labourer is worthy of his pay. A state governor too is worthy of his pay because he too is a worker in the service of the people. Ask the Revenue and Fiscal Mobilisation Commission. The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, understands that, hence its insistence that the lowest paid worker in the country is worth N30,000 per month. It is called minimum wage.
Aregbe, as he is very fondly called by his people, offered an interesting explanation for rejecting his pay while in the exalted office of governor of his state. He said, and you should listen carefully to this, that since the state housed him, fed him and his family, provided him with state of the art vehicles – exotic cars, jeeps and SUVs and fuelled them – he had no further use for his salary. Splendid.
I perked up when I read that. So, I looked up what the man walked away from in the state for eight years. Here is what I found. In July 1, 2009, the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission, the only body authorised by law to fix the emoluments of our public officers, fixed the following as emoluments for state governors: annual basic salary of N2,223,705; annual leave allowance, N222,370.50; 400% annual basic salary as a loan and personal vehicle maintenance. The actual annual emolument is N11,540,896. These figures are probably outdated by now. The emoluments could be much higher but they will do for our purpose in this column.
In eight years, if we accept the N11,540,896 per annum as the correct total emolument for a state governor, Aregbe walked away from a cool N138,490,752. The multi-billionaires might scoff at it. No big deal. Just a chicken feed. Do not let the NLC leaders hear that. It is a lot of money by all standards, even for the denizens of Banana Island in Lagos and Asokoro in Abuja and other choice and exclusive areas in our major towns and cities. It represents a huge sacrifice by Aregbe. He formally leaves office on November 27. I wonder if he would accept his severance pay of N6,671,116. Compared to the salary he ignored, that is a chicken feed.
It seems his deputy, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori, did not follow the shining example of her boss. Aregbe’s act is a difficult one to follow, obviously. According to the RMFC figures, his deputy must have received N10,772,296 as her total emolument per annum. That came to a tidy N129,267,552.
In truth, we cannot correctly compute what state governors and their deputies cost the tax payers. The hidden payments are huge: generous estacodes for any number of foreign trips every year, free medicals for them and their families at home and abroad and a host of other payments. But hey, they are doing a wonderful job, remember? Building roads, schools, hospitals and any number of fanciful projects.
Why did Aregbe walk away from this whopping amount of money? I consulted my divination beads and discerned this: the man sure is trying to make an important statement about his understanding and philosophy of public service. He believes, it seems to me, that public service is its own rich and lasting reward. The privilege to serve the people, my people, is enough. The decision to become a governor was not his but that of his people. Aregbe served and walked away from his salary to show that he was not in it for the money but purely to serve the people. Refreshing.
I have not interacted with Aregbe closely and cannot vouch for his socialist credentials. But I do not think he is flaunting his socialism. Whatever must have motivated him to do what he did is fundamental to him. It deserves close scrutiny. It is difficult to see a man in our country who is not impressed by the way and manner the Nigerian state pampers its public officers. He must have felt uneasy that despite the fortified mansion called government house, in which he lived with his family; despite their free feeding, their free transportation, their free medicals at home and abroad, he should still take his monthly salary like a common worker. It goes against the grain for the ruler to be treated like a paid worker, waiting for his pay at the end of every month with, say, the office messenger.
Aregbe has challenged the Nigerian state to take another look at what amounts to its pampering of our public officers. The state governors are lords, not workers. None of them is bound by what the revenue commission put down on paper as their emoluments. They help themselves to our common purse and take whatever pleases them, giving governance and the honest management of their states’ financial resources a bad name. If Aregbe could survive without his official salaries and allowances for eight years, so can the other 35 state governors. If Aregbe was there not for the money but for the privilege of serving his people, he makes an eloquent statement about public service and one we should encourage others to emulate. Revolutions of the mind usually begin with one such small step in the revolutionary direction.
It is important to bear this in mind should we be tempted to dismiss him as a man casting about for a hallow around his head. We know that fellow Nigerians seek public offices to enrich themselves. I know of no former public officer in this country who is not lapping it up in the laps of luxury. I know of no former public officer in this country who, like the late President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, left office without a personal mansion to move into. Our philosophy of public service is defined entirely by greed and venality. Poor people go in there and come out stupendously wealthy men. You can see why at least 90 per cent of our former state governors in this new dispensation are disgraced and disgraceful customers of EFCC. It boggles the mind, if you would excuse a hackneyed saying.
Rauf Aregbesola, whatever might be his performance in office in Osun State, has opened our eyes to the possibility that a Nigerian can be motivated to seek public office to prove a point, to wit, that they place public service above personal wealth. It is a small step for one man but a giant step for a country that has gradually lost its soul to the lure of lucre in public office.
END
Be the first to comment