Seriake Dickson, governor of
Bayelsa state, has declined assent to the controversial bill passed by the
state house of assembly seeking life pension for lawmakers.
Last week, the house had passed a
bill that would grant life pensions to speakers, deputy speakers and other
members.
Under the bill, which was
proposed by Peter Akpe, leader of the house, former speakers will go home with
N500,000 monthly, while ex-deputy speakers will receive N200,000. Twenty-four
other former members are also expected to get N100,000 monthly.
The house also wants life
pensions for members similar to those “applicable to former presidents,
vice-presidents, governors and deputy governors across the country.”
But Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the
state commissioner for information, in a statement, said the governor had
conveyed his decision to decline assent to the bill in a letter to the speaker
of the state’s house of assembly on Monday.
Dickson, it was learnt, held
consultations with the assembly members in his country home of Toru-Orua, where
he explained his reason for declining assent to the bill.
He said the bill was inconsistent
with section 124 of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as
amended.
The governor also argued that the
state assembly lacked the powers to expand the categories of public servants
who should be entitled to pension.
Dickson noted that there were lot
of challenges facing the state and that if allowed to become law, Bayelsa would
be the only state out of Nigeria’s 36 states to come up with such legislation.
He said he was guided in the
decision by the principle that government should not be for a select class of
the privileged in the society, and would not get rid of it over seven years
into his administration.
“The lawmakers and indeed the
Nigerian populace would attest to the fact that all decisions of his
administration were guided by the strong urge to protect the public interest
and promote the general good,” he said.
It would be recalled that the
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had earlier pleaded
with the governor not to accept the proposed life pension bill.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com