Saturday, March 23, 2024 - Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has described the payment of pension to former state governors and their deputies as outrageous and criminal.
Obasanjo, who spoke on Friday, when he paid
Governor Alex Otti a visit at his country home in Nvosi, Isiala Ngwa South
Local Government Area of Abia State, insisted that the pension of former
governors was no more than “a daylight robbery".
Abia State House of Assembly last week
repealed the Abia State Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s Pensions Law number 4
of 2021.
The repealed law provided for security,
medicals, cooks and stewards, among others for the former governors.
The bill titled “H.A.B 11, The Abia State
Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s Pensions Law Repeal Bill 2024,” was sponsored
by the Majority Leader and member for Arochukwu State Constituency, Mr Okoro
Uchenna Kalu.
However, speaking during the visit, the
former President called on state governors that pay pension to former governors
to emulate their Abia State counterpart, Alex Otti, and stop it immediately.
He said, “I watched the television and I
saw the repealing of Abia pensions and I asked you what exactly is this, and
you said to me that the pensions scheme for former governors here was too
outrageous.
“It’s like trouble because it allowed them
to have a house in Abuja and elsewhere, and it allowed them to cart away with
whatever they can, yet the pensions of ordinary people from 2014 are unpaid.
“What sort of leadership? You came and said
there would be an end to that rascality. I congratulate you, and I say to you,
I hope that your colleagues will follow in your footsteps.”
Commending Otti for his courage in
repealing the law, Obasanjo said he hoped that other governors would follow in
his footsteps.
“There is still a lot of work to be done, I
said to you, and here you have started, but you should never be tired. Don’t be
discouraged; you will be abused, you will be called names, but if we have
one-third of our states doing what should be done, this country will be a
different country.”
Obasanjo urged Otti to pay attention to the
infrastructural development of the state, explaining that with infrastructure
and good leadership, the state will attain greater heights.
According to him, Abia and the South East
people are industrious and enterprising, and they need good leadership that
will give them encouragement and support to achieve greatness.
“I will urge you to pay adequate attention
to infrastructure because if you give infrastructure and you give the type of
leadership you are giving, the people of the state will have nothing to worry
about. On their own, they are enterprising. All they need is the leadership
that will give them all the encouragement.
“I have always maintained that if there is
any zone in this country that could really give what I call regional
development, it’s the South East geo-political zone because you are almost
monolithic in everything,” the former President added.
Receiving the former president, Otti
assured him that his administration was focused and single-minded on
infrastructural development, especially in Aba, as that is at the core of all
that is required.
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