Former Nigerian Governors aren’t getting enough pension. Especially now that Bola Ahmed Tinubu is president of the country. And Godswill Akpabio is president of the Senate.
The precedent set in 2007 ought to be revisited. Especially now that its chief proponents are number one and number 3 respectively.
As May 29, 2007, neared, Tinubu numbered his days as Governor of Lagos State. He also numbered his achievements in office. And his loyalists who owned the state house of Assembly.
That was when he pushed a bill. It was a feat of great political mathematics. Lagos was one of Nigeria’s richest states. Tinubu had helped it to that pedestal.
He wasn’t going to be Nigeria’s president just yet. The PDP and Obasanjo, his tormentor-in-chief, were still too strong. He needed something inexhaustible. An endless stream of income to stay relevant.
The bill he pushed was telling in its provisions. It was a potion for kings. Full of portions for princes, it was primed to last.
It took no time for other Governors to sit up and take notice. Like Lagos did under him, Tinubu had shown the way. They were entitled to follow.
Ostentatious bills with outlandish provisions were sent to state legislators. Imo and Akwa Ibom were especially culpable.
There was little opposition. In Nigeria’s politics of survival, opposition would have meant death.
The battle to be a governor is usually so fierce for a reason. Once sworn in as a governor, a God within a state is enthroned. There is no shortage of perks, perquisites, or pervasion. Security votes. Local government allocation. Appointments. The list is endless.
There is little accountability. Executive immunity and impunity see to that.
At the end of four years, many of them do another tenure. By hook or crook. Nasarawa 2023 was a startling example. As was Kano in 2019.
Many things ebb away at the end of their time in office. But not their sense of entitlement. In retirement, their entitlement is reinforced.
Whether they are in the National Assembly or in the NEC, their insatiable thirst for their state’s funds is unquenched. And unquenchable.
Those Nigerian children who now cry themselves to sleep because of hunger will grow to ask questions. They will ask difficult questions with their mouths or hands.
They will ask why the rich should get even richer while pangs of poverty grips the poor.
It is scandalous that people who failed to develop their states retire lavish entitlements.
Only bad laws and terrible legislators entrench this kind of inequity.
Nigeria continues to reward those who ruin her. She continues to fuel the greed of those who loot her.
People who should go from government house to jail legislate fat pensions for themselves instead. Their protruding paunches mock malnourished children.
What is most odious is the audacity. The cheeks to use legislation to legalize barefaced stealing. The temerity to turn a people’s portion to their poison.
It is a betrayal to give governors pension for life. That law, in what state it exists, is a betrayal. To allow those who failed many families to legislate lifelong security for themselves is a betrayal.
Nigeria allows it to happen. The law continues to coddle the avaricious. Legislation continues to tolerate thieves by any other name.
Nigeria is rife with unemployment. Many of the few jobs available are insecure. Many people work and die impoverished.
A country unfair to its true labourers condones those responsible for its grief.
That the law is without teeth is not when it has to reward the undeserving.
Something stirs in the law and legislators powerful interests are involved. When big men are involved.
The legislators that pass such laws, who do they represent?
Nobody, of course. They have lost touch. With reality. Aloof legislators. They who should know are strangely indifferent.
The supposed links to the grassroots should know. They should know the families with nothing to eat. They should know the young people with no jobs. They should know of horrible healthcare. Terrible roads. Zero electricity.
They should find such bills too egregious, the laws unimaginable.
But, no. While school children learn under trees, former governors change their cars every three years. While mothers and their unborn die in poorly equipped hospitals, they have the best of healthcare. While young people wallow in unemployment, former governors retain an expansive retinue of overpaid and underworked aides. All at the expense of the impoverished taxpayer.
The injustice which convulses Nigeria, compelling in its indifference. And absolutely shocking by its wholesale endorsement by those who should check it.
The unemployed now employ themselves in Nigeria’s thriving crime industry. May Nigerians know to hold responsible those former governors who scandalously and incredulously enjoy lifelong security.
Ike Willie-Nwobu,
Ikewilly9@gmail.com
