By Ngozi Egenuka
In November last year, Governor Sanwo-Olu announced plans to repeal the Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension Law 2007), which provides for payment of pension and other entitlements to former governors, deputies and categories of public workers. This was in a cost-cutting venture, which the governor decided to embark on as he presented the year 2021 budget proposals of N1.155 trillion tagged: ‘The Budget of Rekindled Hope’ to members of the State House of Assembly for consideration and approval.
“Mr. Speaker and members of the House, in light of keeping the costs of governance low and to signal selflessness in public service, we will be sending a draft executive bill to the House imminently for the repeal of the Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension Law 2007), which provides for payment of pension and other entitlements to former governors and their deputies,” he said.
This proposal has been greatly applauded by a lot of stakeholders and Lagos citizens. A former Lagos state governor, Bola Tinubu, commended the move to repeal the bill in a tweet posted before the ban on the micro-blogging site.
He wrote: “Congratulations to Governor Sanwo-Olu over the 2021 budget, which he appropriately christened ‘Budget of Rekindled Hope’. This audacious and enterprising budget will empower our people and begin to rebuild Lagos State.”
A civil society organisation, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) said it is a welcome development because “it complies with the judgment by Justice Oguntoyinbo of the Federal High Court, Lagos, in SERAP v AGF, which ordered the Nigerian Government to recover pensions collected by ex-governors and their deputies and to challenge the legality of pension laws in several states.”
SERAP, therefore, urged the AGF Abubakar Malami (SAN) to immediately fulfil his promise to enforce the judgment in suit number FHC/L/CS/1497/2017 to recover pensions already collected, and challenge the legality of all life pension laws in several states across the country.
To show that the governor meant business, on June 11, 2021, the Lagos State House of Assembly organised a one-day public hearing in respect of the repeal bill, an indication that the executive bill has reached the House. Participants at the public hearing aired their views on the proposed law, titled, “A Bill to Repeal the Law to Provide for Payment of Pensions and other fringe benefits to public office holders in Lagos State and for Other Connected Purposes.”
The new law under debate provides that all former governors or their deputies should be entitled to a pension at the rate equivalent to the annual basic salary of the incumbent governor or deputy governor, which is 300 per cent of their basic salary of N2, 223,705 amounting to N6, 671, 115 as severance pay, as provided by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
The schedule of the law sought to be repealed, stipulates that all former governors and deputy governors are entitled to residential houses in any location of choice in the state and a house in Abuja for a two-term governor.
On transportation, it provided for three cars for a former governor, an additional pilot and two backup cars to be replaced every three years. Also, the deputy governor would be entitled to two cars, one pilot and one backup car to be replaced every three years. They are both entitled to furniture, a domestic staff – who should be pensionable, free medical treatment for them and their immediate family members.
On security…
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