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The African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate in Kano State, Ibrahim Ali Ameen Little, has pledged to abolish the payment of life pensions and other severance perks to former governors and deputy governors in the state, insisting that the law that provides for such benefits is unjust.
He made the pledge during the public presentation of his running mate, Abdulkadir Shehu Bari, for the 2027 general elections in the state capital.
At present, Daily Sun reports that the Kano State Pension Rights of Governor and Deputy Governor Law (2007) provides for the payment of 100 per cent of the basic salary and emoluments of former governors and deputy governors, as well as the furnishing and equipping of their offices, a six-bedroom house and two personal staff members, including two drivers.
The 2007 law, enacted during the administration of former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, also provides for free medical check-ups for former governors and their immediate families within and outside the country, as well as the payment of utility bills, including electricity and water.
The law further provides for the provision of two brand-new jeeps every four years, as well as an annual vacation of 30 days within or outside Nigeria.
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However, Al Ameen insisted that the Governor and Deputy Governor Pension Law 2007 should never have been passed and signed into law in the first place, arguing that its provisions are unfair to ordinary citizens.
He contended that there was no justification for a person who had served in the state’s highest office for four or eight years to continue receiving such extensive benefits at public expense.
“Don’t forget that everything about being a Governor is free. They feed free. They don’t buy food. They don’t pay school fees for their children. They don’t go the hospitals with their money. They don’t pay for their accommodation. Every travel, home and abroad, is free. They pay for nothing throughout the duration of their tenure.
“Yet at the end of the day, they are to paid these huge sum of the tax payers money over a life time while a normal civil servant who has worked for 35 gets nothing but pittance,” he stated.
“If these life jacket pensions continue unchecked in the state, it will reach a time when we will be spending the whole of the state’s budget only paying pensions to different former governor Governors and their deputies,” he declared.
