 |
| Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imos State. |
By Jonathan Agu
I am not a regular commentator on
happenings in Imo State. I stopped commenting on the affairs of the state more
than a decade ago, after witnessing the pillorying of a government that should
have taken the state to greater and enviable heights. But recent events have
compelled me to pay attention to the brewing danger in the state. It is a pity
how a once vibrant and promising state has been turned to a banana republic,
and, as usual, Imo political elite maintain unedifying silence. Leaders in Imo
State have the penchant and reputation to be unnecessarily silent in the midst
of serious challenges, but when things turn sour, they will start pointing
fingers. That is not what Igbo people are known for. The Igbo man is known for
his courage and outspokenness against blatant evil.
On Friday, May 21, the media space got
busy with the news that Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State had assented to the
bill abolishing the pensions for former governors, deputy governors, speakers
and deputy speakers in the state. As usual and out of ignorance, some citizens
joined the bandwagon of condemning the pensions for this category of public
office holders in the state. The law that provided pensions for former
governors in the state was enacted during the tenure of Chief Achike Udenwa. I
used to run a business along Okigwe Road at the time. I was conversant with
what was happening in the state. Two decades after the law came into being,
Governor Uzodimma has abolished it on excuses that are totally bizarre. It
appears that Governor Uzodimma knew about the sensitivity of what he was doing
and what he wants to achieve. That was why he scurried for justification for
his new gambit, deliberately designed to shore up his fast dwindling image.
Governor Uzodimma claimed he abolished
the payment of pensions to former governors on two major grounds. The first was
his claim that the law providing for pensions for the category of former office
holders listed above is fraudulent, unconstitutional and unacceptable to him.
The second ground was his baseless assumption on how long the former public
office holders could live – as if he wished them death – and the baseless fear
that the state might have about 20 former governors and others in that category
to pay pensions to. “At the age our Governors and Speakers are leaving office,
it will not be out of place to assume that many of them will be alive and
kicking in the next 15 years or more. This will mean that, by then, the state
will have more than 20 governors and Speakers qualified for Pensions and
Privileges”, said the Governor.
Contrary to the Governor’s assertion,
the law that provided pensions for former governors and their deputies in the
state was not a jamboree. Sitting governors do a lot in rendering service to
their people. They do what no one else could do. For example, most people do
not know that a death sentence passed on a criminal must have the imprimatur of
the governor of the state before it could be executed. The reason why many
criminals who have got death sentence from the courts across the country are
still in jail is because their governors shy away from appending their
signatures on the court verdict for years. They fidget at the thought that
someday they would leave office and become defenseless like the ordinary person.
Then the criminals might regroup and come for their heads. On the other hand,
Nigerians have this erroneous views about their governors. Most Nigerians
believe that a former governor must have stolen so much money to keep him in
comfort, all his lifetime. This view leaves these former public office holders
open to attack by criminals. Even while out of office, former governors
continue to render services to their states, oftentimes on pro bono. The
pensions for former governors, therefore, makes provision for their security,
driver, gardener, steward and for medicals. If adequate provision is not made
for their lives after service to their state, these former governors might be
killed or die of one medical condition or the other.
By the way, how much is the pension of
a former governor in Imo State? How many former governors receive pensions in
Imo State? How much does their pension amount to in a year? Have the former
governors been paid their pensions in the last 9 years? Answers to these
questions will help Imo people to know whether the claim of N1.3BN for the
pensions of the former governors is true or a blatant lie. I don’t really think
that Governor Uzodimma believes that the pensions for the former governors
amounted to N1.3BN annually. This figure is outrageous and exists in the
imagination of the person who conjured it up. From the copy of the law before
me now on this matter, a former governor in Imo State received N600,000 as
pension while his deputy got N300,000. A
former governor in Imo State takes home N7.2M annually and that takes care of
his security and personal aides. Even if four former governors were drawing
pensions, in ten years it would amount N288M, not N1.3BN as is being bandied by
the Uzodinma regime.. The claim that the former governors received N1.3BN
pension is, in my view, a classical example of giving a dog a bad name, in
order to hang it, and setting his predecessors up for public lynching,
harm and opprobrium. This is nothing but
destructive politics, designed to achieve meaningless populism. Since 2011, how
many former governor in Imo State have been paid their pensions ? At the moment
there are only two former governors in
the state that qualify for pension: Chief Achike Udenwa and Dr. Ikedi Ohakim.
Former governor Okorocha has not been captured yet because he is a serving
Senator. The immediate past governor, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, is also not in
the loop yet for reason of his ouster from office. So what are we talking
about?
Imo State pays far less in pensions to
former governors than my state, Abia. It also pays far less than Enugu, Ebonyi
and Anambra states. Yet, these states have not abolished the payment of
pensions for their former governors. What motivated Governor Uzodimma to rush
to append his signature on a bill that callously dumped pensions for former
governors in his state? What was the motivation for sending an executive bill
to the State Assembly which received both first and second readings same day
without the opportunity of lawmakers studying the implications of the bill?
Reports show that the bill was passed by the House the second day, and was
rapidly signed only few hours after. No consultations and no public hearing
were conducted or allowed. No law in the history of democracy had travelled
this fast, as fast as this one. The rush with which the pensions for former
governors was abrogated in Imo State raises serious doubt about the real
intentions of the governor and the lawmakers. With the kind of stories emerging
in the media about the Imo State House of Assembly for years now, it will not
be shocking to hear that just six persons passed the bill into law. The state
is notorious for such rascality. With the Speaker, Chiji Collins, battles to
save his name and office following his alleged certificate forgery scandal, he
could do anything to remain relevant.
If the motivation for the abrogation
of pensions for former governors in the state was to gain popularity, why did
the governor not rather do what Governor Ben Ayade did recently by excluding
the ordinary from taxation. If the motivation was to save costs, why not do
what Governor el-Rufai did in Kaduna State by reducing the number of state
ministries and commissioners and other appointees. Kaduna State used to have 18
ministries, but they have been reduced to 8. In Governor Uzodimma’s Imo State,
the number of ministries have rather skyrocketed to 24. And there are over 100
special advisers and senior special advisers. The cumulative cost of one
commissioner in Imo State in a month, for example can write off the annual
pensions of the former governors. It seems to me, therefore, that political
warfare, rather than cutting costs, was the primary reason for the abrogation
of pensions for former governors. Governor Uzodimma is somewhat obsessed with pursuing
a political vendetta against his predecessor, and in doing this he seems not to
weigh his actions. By abrogating pensions for former governor in the state, he
has declared war against those who contributed to making him governor: the
Buharis, Tinubus, Oshiomholes, etc. He has also, perhaps inadvertently,
declared war against his colleagues at the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), the
Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) and the Southeast Governors’ Forum (SGF).
If Governor Uzodimma wants to impress
Imo people, he has more serious things to do and give more attention to.
Thinking big and planning big are better than playing to the gallery. Adapalm
Palm Nigeria Ltd, for example, is one area that needs urgent attention. I am
not persuaded by the shenanigan going on in that palm industry. Planted in
1974, Adapalm is still a 4,000 hectare investment with no meaningful production
and no noticeable transformation. Efforts to revamp that industry in 2010 was
opposed by the political class who like to play to the gallery, as well. While
Imo state still wallows in confusion of what to do, Cross River State has
overtaken it with 75,000 hectares of palm plantation. Rivers State which used
to have about 2,000 hectares of palm in 2011 now has 35,000 hectares of palm plantation.
As I write this, Cross River State has become famous for its deep-sea port
investment, a similar project that was destroyed in Imo. The garment factory in
Cross River State is also an exemplary project. The list goes on. In the next 2
years, these states may no longer depend
on federal allocations to improve their the quality of life of their people.
Where does Imo State stand in all this?
It is worrisome that while some
governors are taking proactive steps to position their states, Imo State is still
playing their usual morbid politics and blame game. By this insensitive
abrogation of pension for former governors, Uzodimma is destroying democracy in
the country. I am not a lawyer but i am certain that the court would easily
throw away this obnoxious, vindictive and not well thought-out action. The
political elite in the state should, therefore, not stand akimbo, folding their
hands and watch the daylight rape of their state by policies that cannot stand
the test of time. They should not repeat the mistakes they made during the
Okorocha administration which absolutely made Imo state a huge joke and a
laughing stock. This is really how tyrants are made.
·
Engr. Agu is an
Entrepreneur based in Owerri.
No comments:
Post a Comment