May 8, 2019

Ishaq Khalid
BBC Africa, Abuja


The legislature in northern Nigeria's Kano state has passed a controversial
law that will give the speaker of the house and the deputy speaker pensions
for life, an annual medical trip abroad and a brand new car every four
years.

The move has been strongly criticised, given rising poverty levels across
the country.

It is unclear how much the pension will be, but if the state governor
eventually approves it, Kano state would be the first in Nigeria to
implement such a law.

Nigeria has the largest number of people living in extreme poverty in the
world and Kano is the country's most populous state.

But the current speaker of the Kano state House of Assembly, Kabiru
Alhassan Rurum, told the BBC the new law was to counteract corruption and
prevent politicians from facing hardship when they are out of office.

At the moment, former Nigerian presidents, state governors as well as the
Senate president and the speaker of the Federal House of Representatives
are entitled to pensions at the end of their tenure.

Transparency International scores Nigeria as highly corrupt on its
corruption perceptions index.







-- 
Ann Marie

"The art of living consists of knowing what to pay attention to and what to
ignore."  -- Mardy Grothe

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