For a long time, Nigerians have bemoaned the hefty amount of money deployed as pensions and gratuities to former political office holders. What is annoying about this is that sometimes these so-called pensions are more than their pay cheque while in office.
Recently, Imo State governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, signed into law a bill seeking to abrogate the huge pensions paid to former governors and their deputies, former Speakers and Deputy Speakers of the Imo State House of Assembly. By that well-lauded and well-received move, the governor who is a potential beneficiary of that life-long largesse, capped a notorious well head through which scarce resources that should attend to growing needs of the citizenry, are deployed to perpetually service the interests of former political appointees, most of whom excelled in pauperizing their respective states in the name of governance.
The action of the governor was one of the practical ways of plugging the rat holes through which public funds are diverted to attend to the interests of a privileged few while the general interests continue to suffer. It was a deft effort to save state resources from being salted as the interests of the masses plunge. It is laudable. It is recommendable. It is lofty. It is noble and speaks volumes of the rising profile of the governor as one who is ruled by a higher passion to serve the people and not worsen their afflictions.
Governor Uzodinma was not under any compulsion to abrogate this notorious practice. He was under no pressure to do away with this self-serving flipside to governance in Nigeria. He owes nobody any explanation if he had decided to continue the process. In fact, he stands to benefit from it if he didn't repeal it. But that he waded through what should be his lucrative self-interest to stop this haemorrhage on the public treasury marks him out as a well-meaning patriot with an intention to make a difference in the content and substance of governance.
The decision to do away with this deliberate gash and abuse of the public treasury-for that is what paying humongous pension to erstwhile political office holders is-has drawn widespread public acclaim for Uzodinma and had scaled up his profile amongst a wide spectrum of the Nigerian populace. It has notched up the public perception of the governor and has retched up for him an impressive persona in the Nigerian political space.
For a long time, Nigerians have bemoaned the hefty amount of money deployed as pensions and gratuities to former political office holders. What is annoying about this is that sometimes these so-called pensions are more than their pay cheque while in office. Again, most of these former governors and speakers and their deputies vandalized their state treasury while in power. Continuing to pamper them with little resources that should be deployed to ameliorate the damages they left remains an imponderable liability to their states. Even some of these governors waltzed their ways to power through illegal means and were removed a few months after they got to power yet they are beneficiaries of this illicit largesse.
In stopping this huge drain on the lean resources of Imo State, Governor Uzodinma has etched an indelible imprimatur on the minds of average Imolites that he indeed came to serve and attend to the interests of the masses. He has shown the light and every other state and of course the Federal Government should follow suit and stop this reckless liberty with the scarce resources meant to serve the people. The citizens of every state and indeed Nigeria, should step up advocacy for the abrogation of these illicit perks just as Imo has done. Political office shouldn't be a pensionable office so all Nigerians must align with Governor Uzodinma and stop this corrupt debauchery. Investing this humongous burden on states that are already suffocating in the grips of scarce resources to deal with increasing needs is wicked. Everything must be done to free struggling states from this unwieldy burden.
The action of Uzodinma is a message of hope that should seep through for the good of all. It indeed complements a salutary performance trajectory that has been coming from Imo State since Governor Uzodinma began his rule and points to a future that every Imolite can confidently be proud of, if he continues the way he has been going.
Ikeja, Lagos.E-mail: [email protected]