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Since 2024, Enugu State pensioners have been waiting to receive their promised long-outstanding pensions and gratuities, running to several decades. This is as a result of the promise made to them that the state government would commence payment of these entitlements.
Speaking during the 2024 May Day celebration held at Michael Okpara Square in Enugu,, Governor Peter Mbah, represented by his deputy, Ifeanyi Ossai,, promised that the state government would collaborate and dialogue with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to resolve all outstanding pensions and gratuities owed to retired Enugu workers. .
He stated that the state government would go back to the drawing board and look at the issues of pensioners who had not been paid for decades long..
To make good the promise, Governor Peter.Mbah later announced the setting up.of a pensions verification committee to determine the identities of pensioners in the state whose entitlements were outstanding.
Secretary to the State Government, Professor Chiduebere Onyia, who was named chairman of the Pensions Verification Committee, told newsmen that the purpose setting up of the committee was part of government’s efforts to address outstanding financial obligations inherited from previous governments.
According to him, Governor Peter Mbah was committed to clearing backlog of pensions and gratuities owed to retired state public servants
“Our administration is steadfast in its support for our senior citizens, particularly those who have served the state diligently,” the SSG added.
Ptof Onyia further explained that the exercise was designed to eliminate fraud, discrepancies, and delays in the payment process as well as to create a reliable and accurate data base.
The.SSG later released requirements and schedules for participation by relevant stakeholders in the verification exercise. Among these requirements were the provision of one year bank statement by each retiree, presentation of passport photograph by each retiree, as well as photocopies of all relevant retirement documents.
The retirees must also present themselves physically with all these documents st the headquarters of their respective local government councils, for biometric capturing..
Even though the exercise appeared tedious and tasking for many of these senior citizens who were in the evening of their lives, and whio were being owed several months of pensions, they nevertheless embraced it with all seriousness.
With their very meagre income, these senior citizens went to their various banks to collect bank statements, photocopied all necessary documents that were required of them, and travelled to their local government headquarters, for biometric capturing.
A good number of these retirees who were even brought to the screening arenas on wheelbarrows, due to old age related sicknesses, while they also spent endless days under rainfall and the scorching sun,, before they could be attended to.
Ironically, what some of these retirees were expecting to receive as retirement benefits, or compensation for serving the state diligently for 35 long years, was as low as N5,000, which even less than what they had already spent in doing the photocopying of documents and travelling to the venues of physical verification.
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The reason is that Enugu State is among the states in Nigeria where pensioners receive the lowest stipends, some as low as N500.a month. Decades of several salary awards and adjustments for existing civil servants in the county have never affected Enugu State pensioners’ allowances.
Unfortunately, after going through these sufferings designed to meet government’s requirements for payment of gratuities, it seems that the whole thing has become exercise in futility. Today, nobody says about anything paying Enugu State pensioners their gratuities. That is, almost one year after the verification exercise has been concluded.
And sadly, many of those retirees who started the journey, who clapped and danced when the government announced that they were going to pay them their gratuities, and who had toiled and struggled to put their papers together, to qualify them to receive their entitlements, had since kicked the bucket, journeyed to the land of no return, obviously, on empty stomachs.
Those still alive, do not seem to fare better. Their hope has been activated, but could not be fulfilled. It is hope against hope, but with no end in sight. It’s like showing an empty pot of water to someone who is very thirsty to drink. He will.be utterly disappointed.
What this means is that these.our senior citizens now feel betrayed. They had been used and dumped In their active years, they produced the wealth of the state. Now that they are no longer productive, they are abandoned. What they did in the past is forgotten. That is the irony of life.
