Saturday, the Abuja-based Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) proposed repealing past governors’ pensions.
“It is unlawful and corrupt for ex-governors who made their ways into the National Assembly to get double pay,” said National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko.
HURIWA also requested state Houses of Assembly to rescind the life pension measure for past governors and public officials.
Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Delta, Ekiti, Kano, Gombe, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Abia, Imo, Bayelsa, Oyo, Osun, Kwara, Ondo, Ebonyi, Rivers, Niger, Kogi, and Katsina are impacted.
The organisation said it is troubling that Senate President Godswill Akpabio and 13 other Senators will purportedly collect almost N5.6 billion as ex-governors pensions and perks during the 10th National Legislature.
Gbenga Daniel, former governor of Ogun State, asked that he be spared from pension largesse, but none of the other 14 senators has openly abstained from squandering state wealth.
Ogun East’s Gbenga Daniel was governor from 2003 until 2011.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Ibrahim-Hassan Dankwambo (Gombe), and Abdulaziz Yari (Kano) all get ex-governor pensions (Zamfara).
Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto), Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Adamu Aliero (Kebbi), Ibrahim Gaidam (Yobe), Danjuma Goje (Gombe), and Abubakar Sani Bello (Yobe) (Niger).
“The 10th National Assembly headed by Senator Akpabio and House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abbas must immediately adopt a bill to abolish pensions for ex-governors in parliament.
“Earning double wages and stealing from the taxpayer-funded national treasury is unlawful and corrupt.
The 10th NASS—undoubtedly a retirement home for previous governors—should do better and eradicate this greedy double income for states to utilise the money for socio-economic and infrastructural development.
