Emulate Otti, abolish pensions for ex-govs, Obasanjo tells governors

Emulate Otti, abolish pensions for ex-govs, Obasanjo tells governors

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has hailed Abia State Governor Alex Otti, and the state House of Assembly for their courage to abolish the law giving former governors and their deputies the right to enjoy life pension.

The former President described the life pension given to ex-governors and their deputies in many states as “rascality”. He expressed the hope that other governors would follow Governor Otti’s footsteps.

The Executive Bill repealing the former pension’s law was assented to by Otti on Thursday night after the House of Assembly passed it into law on Tuesday.

It was sponsored by the executive.

Obasanjo made the commendation when he paid a courtesy visit to Govenor Otti in Abia on Friday.

He said, “It is daylight robbery”, noting that pensions to the former governors and deputies were outrageous while those of ordinary retired workers were owed in Abia from 2014.

He said further, “I watched the television and I saw the repealing of Abia pensions. 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 whatever they could. Yet the pensions of ordinary people from 2014 were 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?”

Even as he praised Governor Otti for a number of projects he was already doing in the state, the ex-President said, “There are still a lot of work to be done. You have started, but you should never be tired. Don’t be discouraged.

“You will be abused and called names. But if we have one-third of our states doing what should be done, this country will be a different country.”

Governor Otti assured him that his administration was focused on infrastructural development.

He mentioned Aba, as that is at the core of all that is required.

He disclosed that his government had in the last nine months completed and commissioned 10 roads in Aba, with 31 other roads at different stages of completion.

“The last one was flagged off two days ago; the Ozuabam to Arochukwu through Ndiokereke, and Okobo bridge. It’s a 30.1km road and that road has not been used in the last several decades. It connects Arochukwu to the rest of Abia state.

“We also have a 67.4km road we commissioned a few weeks ago that connects Umuahia through Uzuakoli and terminates at Ohafia,” the governor enumerated.”