Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged state governors to follow the example of their Abia State counterpart, Alex Otti, and stop the practice of paying pensions to former governors.
Obasanjo was speaking during a courtesy visit at Otti’s country home in Nvosi, Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area of Abia State, on Friday.
The Abia State House of Assembly recently repealed the Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s Pensions Law of 2021, which provided humungous benefits for former governors including security, medicals, cooks and stewards, among others.
The governor told his guest he “strongly believe that leadership is stewardship and if you’ve come to serve the people, you can’t at the same time be fleecing the people”, hence the repeal of the law.
The ex-president, impressed and full of praise, enjoined the governor not to be deterred. “There is still a lot of work to be done, I said to you, and here you have started, but you should never be tired. Don’t be discouraged; you will be abused, you will be called names, but if we have one-third of our states doing what should be done, this country will be a different country. And you are doing what should be done.”
When the president arrived, the governor was in the gym exercising and he invited the ex-president to join him.
Later at a formal conference, Obasanjo now 87, remarked, “This morning, I came in, and I met you exercising, a sound mind and a sound body, and I say to you, now I know your secret. I was glad when you said you do that every other day. It’s just like me playing squash on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I think a leader must keep himself or herself in a healthy condition.”
He counselled Otti to give priority to the infrastructural development of the state, explaining that infrastructure and good leadership were all the enterprising people of Abia state needed to excel.
“I will urge you to pay adequate attention to infrastructure because if you give infrastructure and you give the type of leadership you are giving, the people of the state will have nothing to worry about. On their own, they are enterprising. All they need is the leadership that will give them all the encouragement.
“I have always maintained that if there is any zone in this country that could really give what I call regional development, it’s the South East geo-political zone because you are almost monolithic in everything,” the former President added.
In response, Otti said his government in agreement with the ex-President was prioritizing infrastructural development, especially in Aba, “which is the commercial and industrial hub of the state, and actually the South East”.
Obasanjo ruled Nigeria both as a military Head of State from 1976 to 1979, and as elected president, from 1999-2007 retaining the recognition as Nigeria’s longest-served head of state. His reign as civilian president is still considered the golden years of Nigeria’s economic prosperity.
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