SaharaReporters reports that the Abia State House of Assembly last week repealed the Abia State Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s Pensions Law number 4 of 2021.
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".
SaharaReporters reports that the Abia State House of Assembly last week repealed the Abia State Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s Pensions Law number 4 of 2021.
The repealed law provided for security, medicals, cooks and stewards, among others for the former governors.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.