Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has decried payment of ‘outrageous’ pensions to former governors and deputies while retired workers are owed their monthly stipends as daylight robbery.
He also commended the state Governor, Alex Otti, for his courage in repealing the law that empowered former governors and deputy governors of the state to enjoy pension, describing the abolished legislation as “rascality”.
Obasanjo, who spoke yesterday during a visit to Otti at Government House, Umuahia, also expressed hope that other governors would follow Otti’s footsteps.
The former president was accompanied in the visit by Ms Adewunmi Osagie, MD Ocean City, Lagos; Ambassador Okey Emuchay, Otunba Oyewole Fasawe and Kingsley Ononuju, a lawyer .
Addressing Otti, he said: “I watched the television and I saw repealing of Abia pensions and 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 can, yet the pensions of ordinary people from 2014 were unpaid.
“What sort of leadership! You came and said there will be an end to that rascality. I congratulate you, and I say to you, I hope that your colleagues will follow your footsteps.
“I say congratulations. Congratulations for your tenacity; congratulations for your not giving up; congratulations for your weathering the storm and congratulations for what you did yesterday (signing the repealing of pension law for former governors and deputy governors) and congratulations for what I found you doing this morning (exercise).
“This morning, I came in and I met you exercising, a sound mind and a sound body and I say to you, now I know your secret. I was glad when you said you do that every other day. It’s just like me playing squash on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I think a leader must keep himself or herself in a healthy condition.”
Noting that there are still a lot of work to be done, Obasanjo told Otti: “You should never be tired. Don’t be discouraged; you will be abused; you will be called names. But if we have one third of our states doing what should be done, this country will be a different country.”
He tasked Otti to pay attention to infrastructural development of the state, explaining that with infrastructure and good leadership, the state would attain greater heights.
He noted that Abia and the entire Southeast people are industrious and enterprising, stressing that what the people of the zone require to achieve greatness is good leadership that will give them encouragement and support.
“I will urge you to pay adequate attention to infrastructure, because if you give infrastructure and you give the type of leadership you are giving, the people of the state will have nothing to worry about. On their own they are enterprising. All they need is the leadership that will give them all the encouragement.
“I have always maintained that if there is any zone in this country that could really give what I call regional development, it’s the Southeast geo-political zone, because you are almost monolithic in everything.”
Otti assured the former president that his administration was focused and single-minded on infrastructural development, especially in Aba, as that is at the core of all that is required.
He stated that in the last nine months, his administration has completed and commissioned 10 roads in Aba, adding that at the moment, about 31 roads are in different stages of construction and completion.
Otti, who concurred with Obasanjo’s comment about infrastructure, said that is why he (Otti) is very focused and single-minded in developing infrastructure particularly for Aba, which is the commercial and industrial hub of the state, and actually the Southeast.
“I want to also thank you for supporting our decision to repeal the Pension law for former governors and former deputy governors. I had said yesterday as I signed the bill into law that I strongly believe that leadership is stewardship and if you have come to serve the people, you can’t at the same time be fleecing the people,” he added.
