37 months unpaid arrears: Pensioners tell tales of woe in Abia

The condition of pensioners in Abia State is very pathetic, as the senior citizens lament 37 months of unpaid pension arrears, amidst increasing untimely deaths of colleagues over frustrating living conditions due to lack of money to meet their basic needs.

Their pain is worsened not necessarily because of the backlog of unpaid benefits, but perceived unwillingness by the government to clear the backlog any time soon.

According to them, some of their colleagues have passed due to starvation, lack of funds to care for their medical and other basic needs, expressing disgust that they died without accessing their benefits including gratuities.

They are even afraid that they may not be paid during their lifetime, except there is divine intervention, lamenting that the last time Abia Government paid gratuities to pensioners was 25 years ago, according to the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP.

Narrating their ordeal, one of the senior citizens who said he retired in 2006 with the Ministry of Public Utilities, lamented that he and others like him were currently being owed 40 months arrears.

The 76-year-old said that the immediate-past administration owed him seven months while the balance of 33 months is owed by the current government.

The man who spoke on condition of anonymity said but for God’s grace and assistance from his children, he would have died long ago.

His words: “In 2018 and 2019, nothing at all was paid to us but when Aham Uko was appointed Commissioner in 2020, the man really showed us mercy. He paid us regularly all through 2020 but in 2021, I don’t know what the government did and they started paying us half pension again. Those in charge of the affairs of the state are wicked for closing their minds against the plights of pensioners, some of whom are old enough to give birth to them, yet draw millions every month from the state coffers.”

Another retiree and leader of the Abia Pensioners Pressure group, Chief Daniel Augustine, contended that Abia pensioners are already living in hell here on earth.

He claimed the government had no regard for pensioners otherwise it would not have been treating them like wild animals, noting that even domestic animals are catered for, saying: “We are dying here in Abia. As I’m talking to you now, there is no money in my pocket. I’m 78 years old and imagine how I survive without my pension.”

Chief Augustine, who said he retired from the Veterinary Department of the Ministry of Agriculture in 2000, decried the pitiable condition of pensioners in the state.

The septuagenarian alleged that he and his group were being persecuted by government for refusing to be quiet, saying: “I was detained at the Umuahia Central Police Station together with my Secretary just for putting pressure on government to pay us our pension.”

Asked why he decided to form a pressure group when NUP is the nationally recognised body for retirees, Chief Augustine accused the leadership of the state chapter of NUP of docility over the plight of pensioners in the state.

“They (NUP) don’t call us for meetings. We don’t know what they are doing. They go to government and hobnob with government officials. That is why we decided to form a pressure group to demand our rights. Do you expect us to keep waiting for NUP until we all die?

However, speaking, the leadership of NUP in the state threatened a showdown with the State Government as part of efforts to force the government to pay their benefits.

The union said it could no longer accept the government’s excuses for not paying state pensioners their benefits, abandoning the senior citizens to live as destitute.

NUP in a communiqué issued after its monthly congress in Umuahia, the pensioners claimed that the state owes them cumulative 37 months of unpaid benefits from 2014.

The communiqué signed by NUP’s Acting Chairman, Chief J. O Ekpendu; and Assistant Secretary, Elder Uma Kalu, among others said: “The State Council in session holistically reviewed the very huge debt profile of the Abia State Government to the Pensioners of Abia State and noted it as:(a) 2014 – 5 month (August to December); (b) 2015 – 4 months (January to April); (c) 2018 – 12 months (January to December); (d) 2019 – 11 months (January to November): (e) 2021 – 5 months (August to December); total  – 37 months.

“It is relevant to note that in the six to seven months (January – June/July) pensions paid in 2021, pensioners got 50 per cent or less of their take-home package. The Council is not comfortable that this pension slashing was a unilateral decision of the government which did not specify how long it will last or what will be done about the slashed percentage. These questions are begging for answers and the Council in session demands satisfactory clarification. Vanguard