BY Chinedu Asadu
There is an ongoing protest at the Enugu house of assembly over a bill seeking life pension for former governors of the state.
The protesters stormed the assembly complex at about 11 am, demanding that the bill should be withdrawn.
They were seen carrying placards that read, “no to political life pensions”, while chanting ‘solidarity’ songs.
The protest comes a day after TheCable published an exposé on the bill which provides entitlements running into billions of naira for former governors, their deputies and wives.
The executive bill was introduced for first reading last week Thursday, at a time retired primary school teachers are being owed their entitlements.
Its provisions cover almost any possible major expenses an ex-governor can incur in his/her life, including financial responsibility for burial.
It grants at least 900 percent of a governor’s annual salary as monetary entitlements for the former occupants of the office every year after leaving office.
Even their wives would get a share of the cake amounting to N12 million as annual medical allowance.
It was widely condemned as it is coming at a time when some states including Lagos and Kwara are moving to block such life benefits for ex-governors.
In addition to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic suffered by Enugu, it will further deplete the resources of the state which has a 58 percent poverty rate, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
More so, Enugu was only able to generate N12.2 billion as revenue in the first half of 2020.
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