PENSION AS AN EXIT STRATEGY: Much has been said about the recent Pension Bill passed into law by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly. Much of what has been said has been in connection with public aversion to the bill. Little remains to be said. My interest in this law is not because it is novel or because, by its enactment, it is insensitive to the larger penury which is the lot of the greater majority of our people. My interest is also not in connection with the vast sums which will be paid out in consequence, as gross and unjustifiable as this is. These areas of interest have already been established by other commentators and and a thoroughly mystified and shocked Akwa Ibom public has aired its displeasure and its opposition. I should add that my interest in this legislation is not also in connection with a desire to profit from alignment with the public mood at this particular point in time, even as I consider that rather than the overt justifications which have been advanced by the House Speaker and the States Commissioner for Information for this law, a reasoned review of its provisions to reflect the public mood would have demonstrated sensitivity and established that the administration respects the public it serves. It is this insensitivity to the mood of the public that is of prime concern to me in this legislation. Reciprocal loyalty is the principle that drives engagement between government and its citizens. Government exists to advance the publics interest and Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Republic dealing with the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy puts this in perspective when it states clearly that the welfare and security of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Reciprocal loyalty simply means that when the government exists for the people, the people would, in turn, exist for the government. Issues such as the current Pension Law progressively weaken the reciprocal loyalty index and drive a wedge between the government and the people it is constitutionally obligated to serve. This is what is currently being experienced in Akwa Ibom State. The current administration in the State is in its exit cycle. Having accomplished much to be reflected on, it would be unwise that this Pension issue be permitted by handlers of this government to be what would define its essence in posterity. This would be most unfair on Governor Akpabio, whose performance we have acknowledged and have sometimes publicly applauded People only always remember the negative. Governor Akpabio should not allow our people to remember him for this law. He should not sign it as such a signature will permanently dent him in the perspective of history. He should return this legislation to the House of Assembly and urge the House to urgently and specifically de-escalate the provisions for medical and domestic assistance and to reduce the quantum of pressure the overall law will impose on the public treasury. To act in this manner would be to demonstrate extreme sensitivity to public opinion. It will be to demonstrate extreme understanding of the relative distance between a vast majority of our people and the wealth and power of the state. It will establish the position of the government as being subservient to the power of the people who put the government in power in the first place and whom the government must now serve. But perhaps more than anything else, it will secure Governor Akpabios place in our States history as a Governor who listened hard to his people and accepted their views that this one law is not welcome and should not be signed.
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 06:40:26 +0000
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