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 ################################################################################################# Join the African Association of Madison, Inc. for $25 per year. Mail check to: AAM, PO Box 1016, Madison, WI 53701 Phone: 608-258-0261 Email: [log in to unmask] Web: www.AfricanAssociationofMadison.org ################################################################################################# *** Send email to the list: [log in to unmask] *** *** Access AAM list archives: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/AAM.html ***