In philosophy,it is argued that the communicative import of the lexicon, truth is relative but it becomes suspicious when some critics become hellbent on smearing facts and figures with veils of ambiguity, calumny and obfuscation just to score a cheap political goal designed to sell a Trojan horse to the people. The latest cadence and rhrythm placed on the ongoing passage of Pension Bill for ex governors and their deputies in Enugu State House of Assembly demands some saner criticism and feedback for clearer and effective communication.
Apart from engaging in reckless falsification of evidence just to dent the sterling image of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Dr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the Executive Governor of Enugu State with regards to the pending Pension Bill for our governors and their deputies, the promoters of such information simultaneously dramatize their ignorance the policy making and implementation in the political narrative of Enugu State in the current republic.
By insinuating and stating that the bill in context is being sponsored by Governor Ugwuanyi’s administration, the writer of has not only exposed the promoters’ illogicality but their daring desperation to demonstrate their unwarranted envy for the people-oriented governor. If not, what would push a sound compos mentis resident in Enugu State to imply that the economy of the Coal City state which has been adjudged one of the best six state economies in Nigeria by independent economic rating index is ”impoverished”?. Having been confirmed as one the three most leading state economies that can survive even without the federal government allocations, it becomes laughable when an unusually disenchanted fellow decides to ridicule such government platform on whose back the state rose to such enviable status.
Significantly, the said Gubernatorial Pensions Laws 2007 was specifically presented on August, 2nd, 2007 under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Eugene Ogbonna Odo who was then, the Enugu State House of Assembly in fulfillment of section 124(5) of 1999 Constitution as amended. It is that section of the Nigerian Constitution that empowers the state assemblies to enact legislation institutionalizing the payment of pension to our ex governors and their deputies but the ill-motivated letter writers wish the public to believe that it is Gburu Gburu’s administration that is sponsoring the bill and then the question becomes where was Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi by 2007? Fourteen years after the introduction of Gubernatorial Pensions Laws in Enugu State House of Assembly, some people would decide to use it as a point to learn how to write letters to the current government. Anyway, the facts and figures available at the public domain would make mockery of the unfounded diatribes directed to the person of Governor IFEANYI Ugwuanyi.
Again, when the letter writers whose only obsession is tarnishing the image of Gburu Gburu in Enugu State for the purpose of seeking for a cheap recognition try to argue that the Enugu State pensioners and workers are not taken care of, I also begin to wonder whether those letter writers actually understand what it took the Ugwuanyi-led Enugu state to sustain the 13th month salary for state workers along with the timeliness of the payment without failing to pay the pensioners as at when due. In fact, the desperate letter writers refused to admit that Gburu Gburu happens to be the first governor to pay Enugu State pensioners in fourteen years after the reception of the Paris Club refund; mapping out hundred million naira every month consistently in order to clear the arrears of the long-owed pensioners in a process that was commended and endorsed by the Senate as uniquely transparent and worthy of emulation. How far would any letter writer go in denting the image of a government that has been rated as the first state government in Nigeria to publish it’s Audited State Final Account for three consecutive years?
At a point, I begin to doubt the sanity of the cheap letter writers for attempting to misrepresent the first governor to pay the recommended thirty thousand naira minimum wage in Nigeria which motivated the state workers to go for A THANK YOU VISIT to the resourceful and creative governor. However, the more I browse through those lines in those still birth allegations, the more I perceive the points to puncture and deflate the fading argument.
To tell you how those frustrated letter writers are determined to vent their spleen on the wrong target, they had to cross the boundaries of sanity by falsifying figures in view of the salaries of our state governors and their deputies. As countered by Jude Nnamani Esq; a renowned public affairs analyst in his article ; FACTS TO NOTE ABOUT ENUGU STATE GUBERNATORIAL PENSIONS LAW 2007,
“The said Gubernatorial Pensions Law, 2007 provides that “Any person who has held office as Governor or Deputy Governor under the provisions of the Constitution shall be entitled to Pension for life at a rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent Governor or Deputy Governor respectively, provided that such a person was not removed from office by the process of impeachment or for breach of any provisions of the Constitution…”
The said Law was amended on the 9th day of May, 2017 by the Enugu State House of Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Edward Uchenna Ubosi, the Honourable Speaker. The essence of the amendment was to inter alia restrict the applicability of the law to elected persons only and thereby reduce the number of persons to whom the law would have applied to. This amendment effectively reduced the financial burden that would have been borne by the State under the 2007 Law.
Key New Provisions in the 2021 Bill
Reduction of the Pension Payable- Under section 3 the 2007 Law, former Governors and Deputy Governors were entitled to a pension at a rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent Governor or Deputy Governor respectively. However, the Bill in question reduced this sum by providing for pension at a rate equivalent to the annual basic salary of the incumbent Governor or Deputy Governor respectively in Section 3.
Further analysis, shows that this Bill under debate will not cost the state billions per month, as mischievously alleged. I discovered that the only financial provision relates to payment of annual basic salary, House maintenance allowance, Vehicle maintenance allowance and purchase of vehicles (which will be purchased once in four years). It should be noted that the annual basic salary of a Governor or Deputy Governor (which is publicly available online at www.rmafc.gov.ng) is not what is been bandied around in the media. A percentage of this figure will then be paid as House maintenance allowance, Vehicle maintenance allowance and personal staff allowance. This is obviously not a case of financial recklessness.”
I know that when it becomes impossible for some politicians to convince their people, they inevitably resort to engineering confusion in order to raise unnecessary dust but I know like the intellectual statesman; Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo that Governor IFEANYI Ugwuanyi remains “a fantastic manager of resources” and I can confirm just like Senator. Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani that ODOZI OBODO is truly “a man of self-fulfilling destiny” and no weapon fashioned against him shall prosper.
ENUGU STATE IS IN THE HANDS OF GOD.
WRITTEN BY
HON.MRS. BIBIAN ANEKWE.
SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT (SSA) TO THE GOVERNOR ON MOBILIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT.
ENUGU DI N’AKA CHUKWU MOVEMENT (DG.)
