Since 2024, Enugu State pensioners have been waiting in vain to receive their promised long-outstanding pensions and gratuities, which runs into several decades.
Speaking during the 2024 May Day celebration held at the 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 State 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. Everybody rejoiced.
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.
The Secretary to the State Government, Professor Chiduebere Onyia, who was named chairman of the Pensions Verification Committee, later told newsmen that the purpose for 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 Enugu 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 verification 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 provision of one year bank statement by each retiree, presentation of passport photograph by each retiree, as well as presentation of photocopies of all relevant retirement documents.
The retirees must also present themselves physically with all these documents at 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 who were being owed several months of pensions, they nevertheless embraced it with all seriousness.
With their very meagre income, the 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, spent endless days under heavy rainfalls and 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 was even less than what they had already spent in doing the photocopying of documents and travelling to the venues of physical verification.
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 never affected Enugu State pensioners’ allowances.
Unfortunately, after going through all these sufferings designed to meet government’s requirements for payment of gratuities, the whole thing came to naught, as nobody talked about paying pensioners their gratuities anymore
However, when it seemed that the people were getting worried about the undue delay in paying the promised gratuities, the state government came up and ordered another verification, which it termed “mop-up exercise”.
Three years after the exercise, many of the retirees who started the journey, who clapped and danced when the government announced that they were going to pay them their long-outstanding gratuities, and who toiled and struggled to put their papers together to qualify to them to receive their entitlements, had since kicked the bucket, and journeyed to the land of no return, obviously, on empty stomachs.
Those who are still alive, do not seem to have fared better. They continue to hope against hope, when the state government promises will materialize, so they will receive their gratuities.
Worse still, is that
these so-called unpaid gratuities have become almost worthless, eaten up by inflation. Compare the value of money in 2010, for instance, and its value in 2026.
What all means is that our senior citizens now feel betrayed. They feel that they have been used, dumped, and abandoned after their active years in service. Now that they are no longer productive, the government can as well do away with them. All their past contributions have been forgotten.That is the irony of life.
Since 2024, Enugu State pensioners have been waiting in vain to receive their promised long-outstanding pensions and gratuities, which runs into several decades.
Speaking during the 2024 May Day celebration held at the 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 State 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. Everybody rejoiced.
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.
The Secretary to the State Government, Professor Chiduebere Onyia, who was named chairman of the Pensions Verification Committee, later told newsmen that the purpose for 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 Enugu 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 verification 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 provision of one year bank statement by each retiree, presentation of passport photograph by each retiree, as well as presentation of photocopies of all relevant retirement documents.
The retirees must also present themselves physically with all these documents at 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 who were being owed several months of pensions, they nevertheless embraced it with all seriousness.
With their very meagre income, the 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, spent endless days under heavy rainfalls and 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 was even less than what they had already spent in doing the photocopying of documents and travelling to the venues of physical verification.
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 never affected Enugu State pensioners’ allowances.
Unfortunately, after going through all these sufferings designed to meet government’s requirements for payment of gratuities, the whole thing came to naught, as nobody talked about paying pensioners their gratuities anymore
However, when it seemed that the people were getting worried about the undue delay in paying the promised gratuities, the state government came up and ordered another verification, which it termed “mop-up exercise”.
Three years after the exercise, many of the retirees who started the journey, who clapped and danced when the government announced that they were going to pay them their long-outstanding gratuities, and who toiled and struggled to put their papers together to qualify to them to receive their entitlements, had since kicked the bucket, and journeyed to the land of no return, obviously, on empty stomachs.
Those who are still alive, do not seem to have fared better. They continue to hope against hope, when the state government promises will materialize, so they will receive their gratuities.
Worse still, is that
these so-called unpaid gratuities have become almost worthless, eaten up by inflation. Compare the value of money in 2010, for instance, and its value in 2026.
What all means is that our senior citizens now feel betrayed. They feel that they have been used, dumped, and abandoned after their active years in service. Now that they are no longer productive, the government can as well do away with them. All their past contributions have been forgotten.That is the irony of life.
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