Retired workers of Abia State government are fuming with anger after realising that the leadership of the State Council of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) had signed a memorandum of agreement(MoA) forfeiting big percentage of their pension arrears.
In the MoA whicb they signed witn government, paving the way for payment of the N32 billion pension arrears inherited from previous administration, the NUP leadership also unwittingly signed for retirees to fordeit their unpaid gratuities.
The boiling anger of retirees over the unpalatable turn of events was expressed at a press conference on July 11, 2024 organised in Umuahia by the Abia Pensioners’ Forum(APF) in order “to present our side of the story”.
The Forum, which describes itself as a pressure group within the Abia NUP, said that retirees never authorised the state NUP leaders to sign off their pension arrears and gatuities. They appealed to the State Governor, Dr Alex Otti to revisit the MoA and reverse the forfeiture of huge chunk of their pension arrears and their entire gratuities.
According to official records made available by the Forum, 6,242 state pensioners and 5,237 local government pensioners were paid N9, 023 billion arrears of pension, representing between 30 and 60 percent of the total arrears owed each retiree. Those with arrears below N1 million got 60 percent payment; N1 – N2m, 35%; N2m – N3m, 30%; N3m-5m, 30% while retirees whose pension arrears were above N5 million were paid 30% of the total amount.
Speaking at the press conference, the Coordinator of the Forum, Barr. Okey Kanu, stated that “the purported clearance of arrears of pension and gratuity” did not represent what actually happened, as retirees were not paid what they had expected from government.
He recalled that Otti had, during his election campaign, promised to clear in full all pension arrears, thereby reviving the hope and expectations of the Abia pensioners, who were “deprived and famished for many years by the previous administration”.
Kanu regretted that pensioners’ expectations came to an anti-climax in March 2024, “when we started receiving (bank payment) alerts for their purported arrears of pension”.
“It became a case of total disappointment for most pensioners, especially those whose arrears were in upwards of 40 months,” he said, noting that the amount paid to each pensioner was at variance with the actual figures.
“It was totally unfathomable how the state government arrived at the figures it paid to each pensioner as arrears. It was a situation whereby the more one expected, the lesser he got”.
Kanu faulted the MoA signed between the state government and the leadership of Abia NUP, which required government “to pay only a part of the arrears, while the balance will be forfeited by pensioners”.
He described the MoA as “weighty and devastating, illegal, exploitative and unconscionable”, given that “pension and gratuity are statutory and personal rights of each pensioner, hence nobody has the right or competence to negotiate them away”.
However, he noted that “the last straw that broke the camel’s back was when we learnt that our gratuity was also forfeited to the state government in this MoA”, therefore, instead of rejoicing, we were thrown into mourning”.
The Forum Coordinator pointed out that when the Otti administration came up with the idea that pensjoners would forfeit percentages of arrears graded according to the amount each pensioner was owed, it was accepted with a condition.
He said that the pensioners had at an enlarged Council meeting adopted a proposal on payment schedule which required that pensioners whose arrears stood at N1 million and below should receive 100 percent payment.
According to the grading, those on N1 – N2m would get 90 percent; N2m – N3, (80%); N3m – N5m(70%), while those with accrued pension arrears of N5m and above would be paid 60 percent, forfeiting 40 percent as “sacrifice”.
Kanu stated that when government started paying the arrears, “there was no template or parameters published” as used in the computation of the arrears, adding that, “pensioners were paid what suited those who computed the figures”.
He appealed to Governor Otti to revisit the payment of the arrears in order to resolve the outstanding issues, even though government had maintained that pensioners have received “full and final” payments of arrears.
The Coordinator said that the Forum had written a passionate letter to the Governor since May 16, 2024, begging him to reconsider the forfeiture of the big chunk of pension arrears and the entire unpaid gratuities of retirees.
He stated that they had also formally written to prominent individuals and offices within and outside Abia State imploring them to intervene on their behalf and plead with Governor Otti to revisit and rescind the vexatious MoA.
The Forum suggested that instead of making pensioners to forfeit their pension arrears, government should have used the N10 billion it said was spent on the arrears as part payment and let the remaining N20 billion remain as debt.
“By purporting to have cancelled these debts, the present administration is shooting herself in her foot as it will wittingly carry the cross and blame of the past administration that accumulated them(pension and gratuity arrears),” the Forum coordinator said.
Leave a Reply