A former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, has sensationally revealed that state governors earn outrageous wages compared to the vexed issue of senators’ earnings just recently made public.
Obi, while speaking as a panelist at the dialogue organised by Ripples Centre for Data and Investigative Journalism in Lagos on Thursday, said governors’ earnings in Nigeria is immodest, compared to earnings of public office holders in the United States of America.
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.
“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?
“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?”
“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 it (bullet proof car), and they didn’t kill me.
“In 2017, Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna Satate, made public details of his state’s expenditure, including security vote,” he added.
Obi urged leaders to stop complaining about what they met in office but provide solutions to it.
“You told us that you are going to solve a problem, and we voted you, but now you are telling us that you met a problem, what did you expect to meet?
“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,” he added.