Akwa Ibom Assembly passes Governor’s Pension Bill

Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has passed the controversial Pension and Other Benefits Bill enabling elected former governors and deputy governors to earn salaries for life and collect not less than $50,000 for their domestic servants per month.     The bill, which almost made the organised labour protest in the streets but for the timely intervention of the Speaker, Sam Ikon and his Deputy, Udo Kerian Akpan, who rushed to placate labour leaders yesterday morning, stipulates that at the expense of the state government, former state leaders are entitled to “ a new official car and a utility vehicle once in every four years, one personal aide and the provision of adequate security for his person during his lifetime.”The bill likely to be signed into law on or before June 1, 2014, will also ensure the “provision of funds to employ a cook, chauffeurs, and security guards for the governor at a sum not exceeding N5 million (or the equivalent of $50,000 in Nigerian currency) per month, and N2 million (or the equivalent of $20,000 in Nigerian currency) per month for the deputy governor.”The retired governor and his deputy are also entitled to “provision of free medical services for his person and spouse at the sum not exceeding N100 million (or the equivalent of $600,000 in Nigerian currency) per annum for the governor and N30 million (or the equivalent of the $20,000 in Nigerian currency) per annum for the deputy governor.The bill also seeks to provide for the former governor a befitting accommodation not below a five-bedroom maisonette in either Abuja or Akwa Ibom for retired governor, even as it will also provide for yearly accommodation allowance of 300 per cent of annual basic salary for a former deputy governor of the state.The former governor, according to the bill, will also receive a severance gratuity of 300 per cent of annual basic salary as at the time he leaves office, among other things. Where the former governor or deputy dies, government will make adequate arrangement and bear financial responsibility for his burial, pay a condolence allowance of a sum equivalent to the annual basic salary of the incumbent to his next of kin, and provide one surviving spouse with medical allowance not exceeding N12 million per annum, provided that such a spouse was married to the governor at the time he or she was in office, and if a wife, had served the state as first lady.

After careful and heated debate by members present, the motion for the bill to be read for the third time and passed into law was moved by the Deputy Leader, Ekaete Okon, and seconded by Mr. Aniekan Akpan, a member representing Ukanafun State Constituency.
Consequently, the speaker directed the clerk of the House, Mrs Mandu Umoren, to forward a clean copy of the bill to the governor.