Otti stops payment of pension to ex-Govs, Deputies, says leadership not about business, self-interest

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, has signed into law the bill which which empowers the state to stop paying pensions to former Governors and Deputy Governs of the state.

The bill, known as Abia State of Nigeria Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s Pension Repeal Law of 2024, was passed by the State House of Assembly on Tuesday, March 19, 2024.

Assenting to the bill on Thursday, March 21, 2024, Governor Otti noted that leadership was neither a business nor for serving selfish interests but for rendering stewardship.

The Governor explained that the Bill was an Executive, saying tha he had believed from the onset that government was not going to continue with the practice of paying pension to former Governors and Deputy Governors of the State because  the money would have been better deployed to offset the backlog of pension arrears owed Abia retired workers since 2014. 

“I want to make a few things clear: one is that even before we came on board, a lot of people who had followed our views, understand that we were not going to continue with the practice of paying pensions and allowances to this set of former government officials. 

“A lot of people had confronted me to remind me that very soon I will also be a former Governor and I agree, completely.”

While stressing that government was not about self-interest, the Governor said he believed that repealing the pensions for Governors and Deputy Governors was the right step to take as it was all about good governance and stewardship.

“So it’s all about good governance, it’s all about stewardship to our people and I strongly believe that any leader who believes that leadership is a business has lost his way. 

“As far as I am concerned, leadership is stewardship and if you now want to take up all the resources that belong to the people you are leading, I’m not sure that is morally correct,” the Governor said.

Government is not about self-interest and it’s actually self-interest that destroys government and if you accuse me of belonging to a class I would be readily admitted into, I agree but add that I have happily committed class suicide because I would have benefitted if this law had continued. “But we all know that it’s not the best for the country, for this state,  for the workers who were hitherto owed for months, for pensioners who we are still struggling to defray several months and years of arrears from 2014, it’s more appropriate for us to use the funds that would have been used to pay former elected political office holders,” he added.

He thanked the House of Assembly for expeditiously considering and passing the Bill; and for the cordial relationship existing between it and the Executive arm of government,  which, according to him, was built on trust, respect and the understanding that both arms were working for the common good of the people .

Presenting the bill to the Governor for his assent earlier, the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Emmanuel Emereuwa, represented by the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Austin Meregini, said the Bill repeals Law Number 4 of 2001 which empowers the State government to be paying pension to former Governors and Deputy Governors of the State.

Emereuwa thanked the Governor for working harmoniously with the State House of Assembly.

The new Law repealing the payment of pensions to ex-governors and ex-deputy governors known as H.A.B 11, had passed First and Second Readings, and was during Tuesday’s plenary, considered at the Committee of the Whole before its Third reading.

Rt. Hon. Emeruwa, while announcing the passage of the bill, highlighted its importance, saying it would help in reducing the state’s cost of governance and the saved resources redirected to developing the state.

The Abia State Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s (Repeal) Law 2024 is deemed to have taken effect from March 19, 2024, the day the bill was passed.

The bill was sponsored by the Majority Leader of the Abia State House of Assembly and Member representing Arochukwu State Constituency, Hon Uchenna Okoro.