Abia Governor Alex Otti has assented to the Abia Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Repeal Law of 2024 passed by the Assembly.
The Governor who explained that the Bill is an Executive Bill, thanked the Assembly for expeditiously passing it.
He said that it was his belief from the onset that the government was not going to continue with the practice of paying pension to former Governors and Deputy Governors.
According to him, the money would have been better used in offsetting the backlog of pension owed to Abia retired workers since 2014.
“I want to make a few things clear, one that even before we came onboard a lot of people who had followed our views understand that we were not going to continue with the practice of paying pensions and allowances to this set of former government officials.
“A lot of people had confronted me to remind me that very soon I will also be a former Governor and I agree completely”, he said.
While stressing that government was not about self-interest, the Governor said he believed that repealing the pensions for Governors and Deputy Governors was the right step to take as it is all about good governance and stewardship.
“So it’s all about good governance, it’s all about stewardship to our people and I strongly believe that any leader who believes that leadership is a business has lost his way.
“As far as I am concerned, leadership is stewardship and if you now want to take up all the resources that belong to the people you are leading, I’m not sure that is morally correct”, Otti stated.
Continuing, he maintained that “government is not about self-interest. It’s actually self interest that destroys government and if you accuse me of belonging to a class I would readily admit but add that I have happily committed class suicide because I would had benefitted if this law had continued.
“But we all know that it’s not the best for the country, for this state, for the workers who were hitherto owed for months.for pensioners who we are still struggling to defray several months and years of arrears from 2014, it’s more appropriate for us to use the funds that would have been used to pay former elected political office holders”.
