Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has commended Gov. Alex Otti, and the Abia State House of Assembly, for their courage to abolish the law that entitled former Governors and their Deputies to enjoy life pension and expressed hope that his colleagues will follow suit.
The Executive Bill repealing the former pension’s law was assented to by Gov. Otti Thursday night after the House of Assembly passed it into law oge Tuesday.
Obasanjo made the commendation when he paid a courtesy visit to Gov. Otti in Abia on Friday on his way to Item where his former Special Assistant on Privatisation, Bishop Sunday Onuoha, was celebrating his 61st birthday.
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Obasanjo noted that pensions to the former Governors and Deputies were outrageous while those of ordinary retired workers were owed in Abia from 2014, describing the act as daylight robbery.
In his words,”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 with 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?”
The former President congratulated Governor Otti for his tenacity and for weathering the storm to become Abia Governor and reminded him that a lot of work needed to be done.
He urged Governor Otti to pay attention to infrastructural development of the State, explaining that with infrastructure and good leadership the State will attain greater heights.
Receiving the former President, Governor Otti assured him 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.
Governor Otti thanked the former President for supporting his government’s decision to repeal the law that empowered former Governors and Deputy Governors to receive pensions, stressing that cost of governance is a major problem for every State and the Federal Government.
