Date: 2011-08-19

When the late former Governor of Kwara state, Admiral Muhammed Alabi Lawal (rtd) built the Kwara state presidential lodge that gulped millions of naira in 2002, he never envisaged that a former governor in the state would turn it into his personal residence.
Lawal constructed the presidential house for President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate when the former president was on official visit to the state.
Despite the fact that Lawal belonged to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), he gave Obasanjo a befitting reception. Since then, the lodge had always been reserved for the hosting of Presidents, Vice-Presidents and other important guests who visit the state.
At the end of Lawal's administration, the PDP government under Dr. Bukola Saraki, used the lodge for various assignments until the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) recently drew attention of all and sundry to the alleged illegal occupation of the lodge by Saraki.
Peoples Daily Weekend recalls that sometimes in 2010, the last House of Assembly under the leadership of Alhaji Babatunde Muhammed considered enacting a law that would compel the state government to build a mansion for elected governors and their deputies, with effect from the administration of Dr. Bukola Saraki.
A combination of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) under its Chairman, Barrister Salman Jawodo and civil society groups however shouted down the bill in the public hearing held to test its acceptabiliy.
The bill, which was sent to the House by Dr. Saraki and sponsored by the then majority leader, Hon. Ishola Balogun, generated heated debate and was met with stiff resistance, leading to its death on arrival.
At the public hearing, Attorney General of the state and Commissioner for Justice, Alhaji Saka Aimbola Issau (SAN) said the planned legal framework was okay and reasonable, considering that section 145 of the 1999 constitution gives the legislature the power to make such legal interventions.
But the NBA, led by its Chairman, Barrister Salman Jawoodo, maintained that the proposed bill was too ambitious in its provisions and that it was not in the best interest of the masses.
He noted that if the law was passed, the beneficiaries would empty the resources of the state and it will serve as a burden on the state government. He also queried the fact that the allocation of accommodation to the former governors outside Kwara state did not specify the design and cost implication.
"The rationale behind the proposal can only be selfish and self-seeking. It is the public that elects their representatives as well as the executive. This bill appears not to be putting the interest of the public into consideration. Political office holders had never been pensionable and to enact this law in its present form will be a betrayal of trust to the people of Kwara state," he said.
Jawodo stated that the cost implication of the proposed salaries and allowances for the former governors and their deputies would be too much for the state to bear as a result of the poor salary structure of civil servants and pensioners in the state.
The bar however recommended that the accommodation for governors should be three-bedroom flat while medical check-ups should be within the country as against the usual practice spending tax payers' money on foreign medical trips.
They also advised that one policeman and one State Security Service (SSS) official each should be detailed to governors and their deputies while cancelling the budget of domestic staff from the Government House official budget.
The leader of some civil society groups in Kwara state, Alhaja Afolake Elelu, in her submission agreed with the views of NBA, noting that many citizens were suffering in the state because they were not being paid their pension allowances promptly.
Insisting on the importance of the bill, the former Speaker of the House, Hon Muhammed however explained that the bill was meant to appreciate the services of former governors and their deputies.
Peoples Daily Weekend reliably gathered that immediately after Saraki left office, the presidential lodge had been his residence while he awaits the completion of the N1.2 billion mansion sponsored by the state government.
But leading opposition party in the state, the ACN had sustained its criticism of the development, labeling it impunity on the part of the PDP government.
In the statement tagged "Presidential Lodge: Bukola Saraki's contempt for Kwara people", and signed by ACN state chairman, Mr. Kayode Olawepo, the party stated that "former Governor Bukola Saraki's continued occupancy of Kwara Government House (Presidential Lodge) amounts to politics of impunity.
He is simply telling Nigerians and indeed Kwarans that look, 'I can do whatever I like and I don't care what anybody thinks.' That is the politics of impunity we are trying to stamp out of Kwara state."
"Despite the denials and contradictory statements from the PDP government and Bukola himself, the former Governor was again at the Presidential Lodge throughout the weekend, where he treated his PDP supporters to vainglorious merriment. This habit underscores the contempt with which the former Governor holds our people.''
The ACN also lambasted the PDP government for ignoring to pay the due allowances to pensioners despite a court judgement mandating it to do so.
The state government, in its reaction through Chief Press Secretary to Governor, Alhaji Abdulwahab Oba said, "while government is not compelled to submit to the ignorance of the ACN, it is obliged to enlighten the ACN as follows;
"That since 2003, when Senator Bukola Saraki, became the state Governor, Kwara state remains one of the few states, if not the only state, where workers retire with immediate payment of their benefits; that since 2003 a monthly allocation of more than a hundred million naira has been earmarked to settle monthly gratuity of pensioners, a tradition diligently adhere to by the current administration; that the case in question is still before the supreme court of Nigeria,'' he said.
He added that "for the avoidance of doubt, the issue before the Supreme Court emanated from accumulated pension arrears from previous governments before the immediate past administration of Sen. Bukola which he, Sen. Bukola, recognising that governance is a continuum, agreed to pay at negotiated terms with the pensioners."
The state government however maintained that it would continue to honour the agreement as endorsed by the pensioners, stressing that the welfare of the citizens, including the legitimate entitlements of the workforce shall continue to be the center piece of the administration.