Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu‘s plan to stop payment of jumbo pension and other benefits to former governors of the state and their deputies has received the blessing of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor of the state.
This is coming as a surprise to many who had thought the move by Sanwo-Olu would bring him at loggerheads with Tinubu, who is generally seen as the real force controlling Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.
The Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension Law 2007), which provides for payment of pension and other entitlements to former governors of the state and their deputies, was passed by the Lagos State House of Assembly and signed into law by Tinubu at the tail end of his second term in 2007. Tinubu (1999-2007) and other former governors including Lateef Jakande (1979-1983), Babatunde Fashola (2007-2015), and Akinwunmi Ambode (2015-2019) are beneficiaries of the law.
It is this same law that Sanwo-Olu informed the Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday that he plans to repeal in order to reduce the cost of governance in the state. While presenting the 2021 budget proposal to lawmakers, he told them he would send an Executive Bill to them to scrap the law because the entitlements were not sustainable due to financial constraints.
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“In light of keeping the costs of governance low and to signal selflessness in public service, we will be sending a draft Executive Bill to the House immediately for the repeal of the Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension Law, 2007), which provides for payment of pension and other entitlements to former governors and their deputies,” the governor said.
“It is our firm belief that with dwindling revenues and the apparent inflationary rates, we need to come up with innovative ways of keeping the cost of governance at a minimum while engineering a spirit of selflessness in public service,” he said.
On Wednesday, Tinubu tweeted that the plan by Sanwo-Olu was a courageous and bold move and encouraged other All Progressives Congress (APC) loyalists to toe the same path.
“Congratulations to Governor Sanwo-Olu over the Y2021 budget which he appropriately christened ‘Budget of Rekindled Hope’. This audacious and enterprising budget will empower our people and begin to rebuild Lagos State,” Tinubu said via his verified Twitter handle @AsiwajuTinubu.
“In particular, I would also like to commend the governor for the plan to commence the repeal of the Pension Law giving pension packages to former governors and their deputies,” he tweeted on Wednesday.
“This is a bold and courageous move by Mr. Governor and I wholeheartedly support him. I encourage all APC loyalists to do the same,” he said.
The law in question provides that former governors are each entitled to 100 percent of the basic salary of the serving governor (N7.7m per annum), a house in any location of their choice in Lagos and Abuja, six brand new cars every three years, medical allowances in any part of the world, as well as furniture allowance, which is 300 percent of their annual basic salary (N23.3 million).
The law is also in operation in some other states, including Rivers and Akwa Ibom.
