Peter Obi, a former governor of
Anambra state, says what governors earn in Nigeria is immoderate.
Speaking as a panelist at the
dialogue organised by Ripples Centre for Data and Investigative Journalism in
Lagos on Thursday, Obi told the audience that if he revealed how much a
Nigerian governor earns, the outrage would be hotter than what trailed the
N13.5 million monthly pay of senators.
“None of you knows what a
governor earns, quote me anywhere if you know you won’t be here,” he said.
“It is something you can’t
imagine. You just know the one of senators, and you are shouting, but what if
you know that of the governors?”
Comparing Nigeria with the US,
Obi spoke of the modesty in the earnings of public office holders in America.
“America’s GDP is way above
Nigeria’s but an American senator earns $174,000 (about N50 million) a year and
you can imagine what his Nigerian counterpart earns in a month,” he said.
“In America, governors earn
according to their state. The governor of California is the highest paid in
America, and he earns $192, 000. The smallest state earns $70, 000. But in
Nigeria, I can tell you because I’ve been there, the cost of just keeping
convoys alone is in millions. And when people ask me why am I saying these
things, I tell them that even if we made mistakes yesterday, can’t we correct
it today?”
Obi said while in power, he
reduced the vehicles in his convoy to four, adding that he never used a
bulletproof car.
“I asked them, why are all these
vehicles following me, and nobody was able to explain to me. I didn’t stop it
because of them following me, but the cost of maintaining them was high. I
asked them why do we need to spend about N30 million fueling these vehicles
that 60 percent are empty when following me?” he said.
“What is the essence of a
bulletproof car? Anyone who wants to kill you would come when you are out of
the car. For eight years I didn’t use, and they didn’t kill me.”
In 2017, Nasir el-Rufai, governor
of Kaduna state, made public details of his state’s expenditure, including
security vote.
On the payslip shared by the
governor, the Kaduna state government paid the governor a net salary of
N470,521.74 for the month of February 2017.
Obi also noted that politicians
are fond of making promises they cannot fulfil when voted into power.
“You told us that you are going
to solve a problem, and we voted you, and now you are telling us that you met a
problem, what do you expect to meet?” he asked.
“You shouldn’t tell us the story
of what you met there, we do not expect 100 percent result, but 100 percent
effort. We voted you because you said you are going to solve this problem.”
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You could have tell us how much you have been collected when chibock in office
ReplyDeleteI am sorry, when you are in office, not chibock
ReplyDelete