From Govt House to heaven on earth
Instead, our friend Mr Godswill Akpabio, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, is thinking of building a heaven on Earth for himself and his family after leaving office, from the tax payers’ pockets. Last week he sent an Akwa Ibom State Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Bill 2014 to the state House of Assembly. Before […]
Instead, our friend Mr Godswill Akpabio, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, is thinking of building a heaven on Earth for himself and his family after leaving office, from the tax payers’ pockets. Last week he sent an Akwa Ibom State Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Bill 2014 to the state House of Assembly. Before you could say “rubber stamp” the Akwa Ibom State Assembly took the bill through first, second and third readings and passed it into law.
Under this new Pensions Law which is good enough for heaven, Akpabio is entitled to his current salary for life and another N26 million annually as pension. In addition, he will get a new official car and a utility vehicle once every four years, one personal aide and the provision of adequate security during his lifetime. Tax payers will also cough out $50,000 every month for Akpabio to engage the services of a cook, chauffeurs and security guards.
That’s not all. Godswill Akpabio and his wife are entitled to free foreign medical service “not exceeding $600,000 per annum.” He will get, in addition, “a befitting house not below a 5-bedroom maisonette in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja or Akwa Ibom State” plus 300 percent of annual basic salary once in every four years as furniture allowance. He will also get 300% of annual salary to fuel his vehicles and a severance gratuity at the time of leaving office of 300% of annual basic salary. He will in addition get 100% of his annual salary as yearly utility allowance and another 100% as entertainment allowance. Akwa Ibom tax payers will continue to foot Akpabio’s bills even when he dies because the law provides that the state government must foot his funeral expense bills and also continue to provide N12 million annual medical bills for his surviving wife.
I am not surprised that Mr Godswill Akpabio is thinking like this, having sat atop a derivation-awash state treasury these past seven years, complete with the abrogation of onshore/offshore dichotomy. Among his stellar achievements in office is wrecking the Nigeria Governors Forum [NGF], discovering the formula that 16 is greater than 19 and engineering the sacking of Alhaji Ahmed Gulak as the president’s political adviser. It is for these stellar achievements that Mr Akpabio wants tax payers to pay him a pension that effectively puts him in Heaven here on Earth. Never mind that most of the people of Akwa Ibom State are still catching hell after nearly a decade of his rule.
Hard pressed Akwa Ibom tax payers, I have news for you. Mr Akpabio is not going to get this money the way he plans it. He might get away with some of it, the one he pays to himself, but as soon as he is out of office the same State Assembly that speedily passed this ridiculous law will abrogate it at an even shorter Executive Session. Mark my words.
CDS Badeh, what are you waiting for?
Even to the “volunteers” of the pro-government group #Release Our Girls Now it was a surprise revelation. Chief of Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, who gave them a red carpet reception at the Defence Headquarters on Monday, said the military knows where the abducted 200 plus Chibok school girls are being held.
Badeh, what kind of Defence chief are you? If you know where they are, why didn’t you rescue them? And if it is not feasible to rescue them, then why did you say publicly that you know where they are? Do you want Boko Haram to move them to another place?