It is this clear reflection of an intention to set up a peculiar regime for the emoluments of the public officials listed in article 71 that reveals the purposive direction of article 71 as deliberately exclusionary. Because of this exclusionary nature, we are of the opinion that article 71 cannot be expanded in the absence of an express constitutional amendment permitting the importation of other beneficiaries. The circumstances of the provisions show that neither statutory nor administrative acts can expand the list of covered persons or officers covered under article 71 without falling into inconsistency with the constitutional intention.
Payment of salaries to the spouses of the President and Vice President
With this broad frame of reasons, it is our firm opinion that the act of Parliament approving the recommendation to directly pay the spouses of the President and Vice President salaries that were benchmarked to the salaries of Ministers and Members of Parliament, as part of the emoluments of the President and Vice President, is an act that is violently inconsistent with the clear directions, intentions and purposes of article 71. It also contravenes the spirit and letter of article 71 of the Constitution.
Persons whose emoluments are fixed under article 71
The tight, precise listing of the identified public officers shows that the framers of the Constitution intended to leave no doubt about the persons and entities covered, and the fact that non-listed persons cannot be included or roped in to the model of emolument setting by simple extrapolative reasoning.
Quiet review reveals the purposive intent behind the framing of article 71 structures. All the covered officers occupy positions that are sensitive and can become amenable to political and external manipulations in the absence of a constitutional framework determining their salaries and conditions of service from time to time, as well as the protection of their remuneration. The use of the constitutional checks and balances found in the structures set in article 71, and the historically crafted provisions, ensures that the said public officers are able to occupy apex positions, without determining their salaries themselves, and they are able to function well within the constitutional requirements on separation of powers and avoidance of conflict of interest. Further, removing the determination of these public officers' salaries from their own hands also ensures that their emoluments are determined from fair and adequate considerations. A failure to set up an appropriate machinery to cover the determination of their compensation and entitlements may expose them to the whims of the executive apparatus, or public service operatives, and through this, subject them to manipulation and other pressures that can and ultimately undermine the independence with which they must work.
