Buhari To Move Against Pension For Ex-Governors

President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), is to lead a campaign to repeal the pension laws for governors enacted by many states of the federation, Vanguard has learnt.

The proposal by the incoming president is based on what sources close to him affirm as the incongruity of the laws under the country’s socio-economic environment and also, as a way of demonstrating moral leadership from the top.

Majority of the nation’s 36 state Houses of Assembly have enacted generous pension entitlements for governors that in many cases provide 100 per cent pay for the incumbent governors buildings, generous medical allowances for them and their family members and annual holiday provisions, all of which are to last for life. Provisions in the pension allowances are also made for staff, security and vehicles that are renewable every three or four years.Buhari-Nigeria

Buhari’s inclination towards a review of the pension for former governors was first publicly declared few days to the presidential election at the All Progressives Congress, APC, retreat in Owerri, Imo State.

It’s scandalous

A source conversant with the development disclosed that Buhari told the governors that there was no way Nigeria could survive under the financial weight of the pensions that had been earmarked for governors. He was said to have described the pension laws as enacted by states controlled by APC and PDP governors as scandalous.

According to the source, “he was very blunt about it and said that it was something that was going to be done immediately, especially because it is not something that can be sustained.

“The feeling was that not only was it wrong and morally unconscionable, but that it was not something that should be encouraged, and he was appealing to them that it should be changed.”
However, the response of the governors, who were present at the retreat, was not immediately given.

It’s a welcome proposal —Keyamo

The development was, yesterday, welcomed by leading Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, who described it as a fantastic proposal but disclosed that it was something that could, however, only be accomplished through moral suasion.

“Fantastic, fantastic. It is a very welcome proposal,” the Lagos lawyer, who backed General Buhari against President Goodluck Jonathan in last month’s presidential election said.

He, however, said the proposal was something that Buhari could only effect through moral suasion as the pension acts were enacted by state Houses of Assembly.

The crave for financial safety out of office was recently also extended to the legislature after the Lagos State House of Assembly passed pension laws to guarantee generous pension entitlements with proposals for former presiding officers of the house.