The uncommon proposal by Governor Godswill Akpabio to "protect" the treasury of Akwa Ibom State through limiting the medical allowance of former governors and their deputies has drawn attraction to the pull on the public purse by the club of retired governors and their deputies.

Indeed, for many within and outside Akwa Ibom State, the amendment of the Former Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Act to provide an estimated N200 million for the upkeep of each of the former governors of the state was an exercise in debauchery.

Given the larger than life image created by the Akwa Ibom state helmsman, it was easy for many to see the proposal as another act of make belief on the part of the governor.

Major innovations in the bill proposed by Akpabio and passed hook, line and sinker by the State House of Assembly on May 26 were the monetisation of Sections 1 (c) and (d) of the 2006 act.

In the place of the provision of cooks and other domestic aides, it was provided that a former governor of the state shall be paid the sum of N5 million monthly in lieu, amounting to N60 million per annum. Also, in the place of a provision free medical services for the former governor and his spouse in 1 (d), a maximum of N100 million was provided as medical allowance per annum.

Section 1 (e) of the 2006 Act was also substituted to cause the state government to make "Provision of a befitting house not below a 5-bedroom maisonette in either the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja or Akwa Ibom State for the Governor."

The 200 million that has been estimated as the cost of maintaining the former governor is outside the cost of building the 5 bedroom mansion as provided in the bill.

The law which was sent to the State House of Assembly on May 15, 2014 was fast-tracked through the legislative House without a public hearing and passed on Monday, May 26 and assented to on May 28.

The speed with which it navigated through the legislature to become law quickly fed insinuations that the governor was behind the amendments.

Governor Akpabio indeed, did not hide his role in the amendment as he claimed that it was meant to limit what he claimed were lapses, mainly open ended provisions that allowed beneficiaries to drain the state's treasury especially on the provision of free medical care.

"I know what I am talking about and because I wear the shoe, I know where it pinches. All the former elected governors and their deputies have been enjoying the pension. The pension was first established in 2000 and was further amended with certain provisions added in 2006," the governor said in a television interview.

His assertion was strong enough to draw fire from former Governor Attah, the immediate past governor of the state who in a telephone interview with Premium Times, an online newspaper, challenged his successor to publicly declare how he implemented the former law as concerning him, Attah. Obang Attah who has had a very troubled relationship with his successor was, however, dismissive of the amendments and the imputations made against the former leaders of the state.

"Why don't you people ask him how much the state has paid to its past leaders? Why don't you people ask him how much has been paying to Obong Attah and others?

"He is the one who said he has been paying so much to past governors and wanted to put ceiling on what is paid out to check wastage of public funds. Those who interviewed him should have asked him to mention just how much he has paid so far.

"You should also ask him whether he built a retirement home for me either in Uyo or Abuja. Ask him to tell you how much he has been paying to Obong Attah as retirement package after I left office," the former governor quipped.

Akpabio who briefed a select group of newsmen following the attacks on him, according to a source at the gathering, was moved to tears as he tendered documents to show how some of those covered by the open-ended medical allowance had seemingly abused it.

One former deputy governor of the state according to the documents was said to have presented N17 million for the extraction of a tooth besides other medical bills that amounted to more than N100 million in one year.

Akpabio's defence nonetheless, even the 2006 Act which the governor said he would revert to makes elaborate provisions for governors and deputy governors of the state.

Even though he promised last Tuesday to drop the amendment limiting the medical allowance to N100 million and N50 million respectively to former governors and former deputy governors, the governor was not explicit on whether he would also drop the other provisions that provided N60 million a year for domestic staff and the provision of a mansion for the former governors.

The revelations have remarkably drawn insight into the huge expenses made by taxpayers on former governors and deputy governors.

Besides Akwa Ibom, other states to have enacted almost similarly provocative pension plans for former governors and their deputies include Rivers, Bayelsa, Kwara and Lagos. Others with less enticing provisions are Edo, Imo

It is not surprising that a coalition of Civil Society Organisations are now threatening to go to court to cause the states implementing the generous perks for the former governors to repeal the laws.