It is no longer a secret that the abject poverty and suffering starring our people in the face in the midst of plenty is deliberately designed using government as a cover.
There could not have been a better indicator to this evil than the public office holders (payment of pension) Bill passed by the State House of Assembly, and hurriedly signed into law by the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi.
The State House of Assembly is Amaechi’s willing tool in making half-baked laws.
According to the bill, the governor will be provided with two houses in any place of his choice in Abuja and Rivers State. He will also have three cars that will be replaced every three years and receive 300 per cent funding for any furniture of his choice.
Other benefits include: 20 per cent funding for utility, 10 per cent funding for entertainment, and 10 per cent for houses of their choice. This is in addition to free medical expenses for him and his immediate family; and security details that will include two officials of the State Security Service (SSS), one female officer of the same department, eight police officers for personal and domestic security, and domestic staff including a cook, steward, gardener and others.
This is to prove that the Rivers State government who sponsored this rip-off law may have done all the ground work they think will prepare a soft landing for this obnoxious plot to cheat and mortgage the State forever.
The ACN believes that the thrust of any law should be to promote the welfare of the people and reduce their suffering as much as is humanly possible.
We also know that it is a salient feature of any undemocratic, insensitive and corrupt regime to be self-seeking and stubborn.
The Peoples Democratic ruling party under Rt. Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi by all intents and purposes has confirmed to the Rivers people that it is not there for them but for themselves and their families alone.
Even from the surface value it is crystal clear that the only motive of this law is to rip-off the state treasury.
If all the provisions outlined in the law are made for one former governor multiplied by the number of past chief executives and their deputies what else is left to carter for the teeming unemployed youths and thousands that graduate from hundreds of tertiary institutions in the country to add to the flood.
We regret that of all the problems and challenges confronting our people, all that border our dear governor is to continue to live in opulence for life; to perpetuate himself in office indirectly to beat the constitutional provision of not more than two terms in office.
The law is unpopular, unethical, colonial, fraudulent and unacceptable.
In a civilized society, mere conception of this wickedness that sees only the former governors and their deputies as the only public office holders leaving out the real workers and ‘live wire’ of the state economy, will provoke civil unrest, and call for resignation of such conspirators if not outright impeachment.
But here, the ruling PDP is shamelessly trying to institutionize and legalize a corrupt practice. This idea rather than help cure the corrupt tendencies of the governors will promote them because it derives from the disease itself, kleptomania that is christened public office holders law.
The law failed to talk about what happens to all the material acquisition of the governors even with all the spoils of the office whether corrupt or not.
It is high time the PDP began to think before it acts.
If the contest for the office of the governor has become a do or die affair as is evident, a creation of same PDP without these eternal luxury attached, what will the situation be like now that life has stupidly been given to this ill-intended Bill.
Is it not laughable that a former governor who may have run the affairs of a state and managed its resources for a period not less than four or eight years as the case may be, cannot start a money yielding venture to sustain him and his family and even further contribute to the growth of the state economy when he is out of office unless he becomes a parasite on state treasury.
Is this law not propagating once a governor, governor for ever and by extension, once a pauper, a pauper forever. Is our society that, which makes no room for growth, competition, elevation and promotion etc.
As a people and a grassroots political party out to nurture the conscience of our state and initiate tenets that are good and sustainable and which will beget good legacies to posterity, the ACN, Rivers State chapter, condemns in its entirety the public office holders law signed by Governor Amaechi. This law is retrogressive, retarding and corrosive, and therefore must not be allowed to be.
We will challenge the legality or otherwise of the fraudulent law in court and we must stop it
Jerry Needam
Publicity Secretary
ACN, Rivers State, Monday, June 18, 2012
