The Lagos State Governor, H.E Babajide Sanwo-Olu, says he’s very keen on abolishing a law which provides for the payment of jumbo pension and other entitlements to former governors and deputy governors of Nigeria’s richest state and economic capital.
The Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension) Law No 11 Official Gazette of Lagos State, 2007 states that former governors of the state are entitled to a house each in any location of their choosing in Lagos and Abuja.
Section 2 of the law states that, “One residential house each for the governor and the deputy governor at any location of their choice in Lagos State and one residential house in the Federal Capital Territory for the governor on two consecutive terms.”
The law also provides for six new cars every three years, 100 percent of the basic salary of the serving governor (N7.7m per annum), as well as free health care for himself and members of his family.
The law also states that former governors will be entitled to furniture allowance, which is 300 per cent of their annual basic salary (N23.3m); house maintenance allowance, which is 10 percent of basic salary (N778, 296); utility allowance, which is 20 percent of the salary (N1.5m) and car maintenance allowance, which is 30 percent of the annual basic salary (N2.3m).
Other benefits include entertainment allowance, which is 10 percent of the basic salary (N778, 296) and a personal assistant, who will earn 25 per cent of the governor’s annual basic salary (N1.9m).
A former governor in Lagos is also entitled to eight police officers and two officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) for as long as he lives.
During the presentation of the 2021 N1.155 trillion budget to the Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday, November 10, 2020, Sanwo-Olu made it clear that the pension law in Lagos has got to go.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos Governor on New Media, Jubril Gawat, said Sanwo-Olu “has announced his intention, through executive bill, to repeal the Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension Law 2007), which provides for payment of pension and other entitlements to former governors and their deputies.”
The 2021 Lagos budget has been christened: “Budget of Rekindled Hope.”
An admixture of the coronavirus pandemic, dwindling oil revenues and anti-police brutality protests have punctured sizable holes in the coffers of Lagos State.
Former governors of Lagos since Nigeria’s return to democratic governance in 1999 include Bola Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola and Akinwunmi Ambode.
