A former Sokoto State governor, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, has said he receives about N800,000 in monthly pensions from the state government, criticising those against life pensions for former state executives.
Tambuwal, the senator representing Sokoto South at the 10th National Assembly, said in a television show, Untold Stories with Adesuwa Giwa-Osagie, that if retired civil servants that are now elected public officials continue to receive their pensions, there should be no basis to deny former governors their life pensions.
He said this while responding to a question on whether it is bad for the country’s democracy when former governors are receiving pensions and then receiving pay as sitting senators.
“If you retire as a civil servant and you contest to go to the House of Assembly, Senate, or House of Representatives, do they stop paying you the pension that they are paying you as a retired civil servant?” Tambuwal, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, quizzed.
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When challenged by the interviewer that the amounts retired civil servants earn as pensions were not comparable with what former state executives earn, Tambuwal replied, “How much am I being paid by the Sokoto State government? It’s about N800,000 (a month) for my upkeep as a former governor.”
Critics of life pensions for state executives have argued that most of them, like Tambuwal, end up in another elective position (mostly Senate) or secure another appointment at the federal level, where they are also being paid from the coffers of the government in addition to whatever their states pay them as life pension.
Daily Trust reports that uproar has been trailing the pension schemes of former governors, which have been described as bogus by activists and other stakeholders in the country who are calling for a stop to the payment.
In the over 20 states where former state governors and their deputies enjoy pensions, the Sokoto State Grant of Pension (Governor and Deputy Governor) Law 2013, states that “The total annual pension to be paid to the governor and deputy governor shall be at a rate equivalent to the annual total salary of the incumbent governor or deputy governor of the state, respectively.”
According to the law, the pension should be charged to the consolidated revenue fund of the state.
The governors and their deputies are also entitled to other privileges, such as personal aides, official vehicles with drivers, and free medical treatment for themselves, their spouses and their biological children, both within and outside the country.
The law also said they should be provided with furnished and equipped offices and residences in any location of their choice, in addition to the payment of all their utilities, such as electricity and water bills.
The law also gave room for monetisation, “Provided that upon the request of the governor or the deputy governor, the items specified in the schedules shall be monetised.”
Based on the law, all elected governors of the state from October 1979 until date stand to benefit from these packages, including those who died while in office.
The current governors of Benue and Abia, Rev. Father Hyacinth Alia and Alex Otti, recently scrapped the life pensions for former governors in their states.
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