A group of Nigerians in Austria under the aegis of “Patriotic Global Citizens Against Injustice (PGCAI)” has vowed to go to court to challenge the status quo of ex-governors who serve as senators with full entitlements as lawmakers while receiving their pensions and privileges as ex-governors.
The group (PGCAI) said it is not right, saying it will challenge it legally “up to the Supreme Court”.
In a statement signed by its Convener, Uzoma Ahamefule, and obtained by SaharaReporters on Sunday, the group said, "There is absolutely nothing one will write now about Nigeria that has not been written before. And the bedrock of the troubles and problems with Nigeria written all these years revolved around injustice, unfairness, nepotism, religious intolerance and above all, leadership failure, etc.
"Nigeria is a country so badly governed that the leaders carry themselves as if it is a lawless country and they are above the law. It is incredible.
"This country is perhaps the only state on the surface of the planet where some ex-governors – a group of political cabals – take all their retirement entitlements every month as and when due and at the same time get full salaries as serving senators. This cannot happen anywhere else, not even in the so-called third world countries – because it cannot be legally correct that someone who gets pension is working a full-time job and equally getting a full-time salary.
"Meanwhile some of these sets of ex-governors during their times in offices vehemently refused to pay our senior citizens who assiduously worked for the growth of their respective states their pensions and gratuities based on flimsy excuses. While some pensioners are still starving, hungry and in agony waiting, praying and hoping to be paid their gratuities and pensions, many have died out of hunger or because they had no money to go to hospital.
"In any state where a retiree did not get his/her pension or gratuity, after the services of the governor of that state, it should be made to be a law that he/she would equally be denied the same pension and other entitlement rights. This could make them to realise the gravity of the offence they commit and the severe harm they cause while in office. After all, it would not be a bad idea and could deter them from the cruelties of preferring to spend billions campaigning for their next elections.
“After our painstaking attention to the issue, we came to a conclusion that such is not right. It is unpatriotic. It is unfair and cruel to ordinary citizens, an abuse of privileges and as such unacceptable. It is either these people are made to enjoy the privileges accorded to them by law as ex-governors or such privileges seize the hour and the day they are sworn into offices as senators."
“One cannot be getting pension and at the same time receiving salary. We, the newly birthed Patriotic Global Citizens Against Injustice (PGCAI), will be ready to challenge this repulsive law up to the Supreme Court. Nigeria is trapped in tragedies and it is time to rise up, and Nigerians will hear from us,” the group added.
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