Mr. Umana Okon Umana, PDP governorship aspirant, Akwa Ibom State |
Mr. Umana
Okon Umana, the leading PDP governorship aspirant in Akwa Ibom State, has
promised to remove the offensive portions of the state’s controversial pension
law if elected governor. The law, signed recently by state governor, Chief
Godswill Akpabio, provides for many controversial financial benefits to past
governors and their deputies.
Some of the controversial provisions of the pension law include N100 million annual medical allowance for every past governor; N30 million for a former deputy governor; N5 million allowance (N60 million annually) to a former governor for his domestic staff and a 5-bedroom mansion in Uyo or Abuja for every former governor.
Some of the controversial provisions of the pension law include N100 million annual medical allowance for every past governor; N30 million for a former deputy governor; N5 million allowance (N60 million annually) to a former governor for his domestic staff and a 5-bedroom mansion in Uyo or Abuja for every former governor.
Reacting to
questions on the law in a telephone interview with our reporter, Umana, who is
the immediate past secretary to the state government, described the pension
legislation as “obscene, provocative and insensitive,” adding, “it is
surprising that in spite of a nationwide public outcry against the bill for the
pension law, the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly rushed to pass it within 11
days and the governor signed it into law with indecent haste within 24 hours
without any inputs from members of the public who will foot the bill.”
Umana said
sections of the law that are highly offensive and insensitive to the plight of
Akwa Ibom people and therefore unacceptable include the provision of a ceiling
of N100 million in annual medical allowance, which is about $700,000; N5
million monthly allowance for the domestic staff of a former governor and the
provision on housing for the former governor.
He said in
spite of the argument that the N100 million allowance is the ceiling, the
contemplation of the provision is absurd, outrageous and unfortunate, given the
level of economic hardship that faces the average Akwa Ibom person, which makes
the World Bank in a recent report to categorise Akwa Ibom State as the third
poorest in the South-South. Umana
faulted the pension law also on the ground that a former governor cannot realistically
incur medical expenses of up to N100 million or $700,000 in one year.
The former
SSG added that an annual wage bill of N60 million at the rate of N5 million a
month for the domestic staff of a former governor means providing for
compensation for over 250 domestic servants
for a former governor based on the current minimum wage of N18,000.
“This is clearly unrealistic and outrageous,” he said. On the provision of a
5-bedroom mansion for a former governor in Abuja or Uyo, Umana who said the
provision is not only unjustifiable and unnecessary, described it is an
open-ended provision that is liable to abuse since the cost of the mansion is
not specified, making it possible for an outgoing governor to provide a mansion
at any cost for himself.
Umana said
he believes that government should be accountable to the people, arguing that
the bill for the pension law should have been revisited to take away its
controversial and offensive portions when citizens of the state and other
Nigerians began to protest against its provisions.
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