- We pay out N1.5bn for pension monthly – State Govt
- Retirees Lament Fate
The Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) has defended the State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa over his failure to pay staff of the State Local Government Councils as well as Primary School Teachers who retired from service since January 2016, just as it described APC’s criticisms of the governor and the party as exhibition of crass ignorance.
It would be recalled that a group of staff from the 25 Local Government Areas of the State including public Primary School teachers across the state who retired from service since 2015, and whose pensions were yet to be paid six years after, recently, sent a goodwill message to a former governor of the State, Chief James Ibori, on his 63rd birthday anniversary, urging him to prevail on the incumbent governor, Okowa to address their plight.
The New Diplomat learnt that the retired senior citizens chose to seek the intervention of the former governor because, according to them, they had written several letters to Gov. Okowa including several peaceful protests, without success. The pensioners, it was gathered, believed that as the leader of the PDP in the State and a former governor on whose effort Okowa became a governor in the State, should be able to talk to the governor and that he would listen to him.
They also reminded the former governor that as he was celebrating his 63rd birthday, most of the staff of Local Government and Primary School teachers who retired at the age of 60 could not live up to 63 years before they die due to poor health and starvation occasioned by the non-payment of their pension and gratuity.
The All Progressives Congress, (APC) in the State, while reacting to what it called “emotional-laden message, filled with tales of sorrow”, described the situation of the pensioners as akin to slavery and man inhumanity to man, just as it blamed the PDP for perpetrating suffering on the retired senior citizens through Okowa.
The party through its State Publicity Secretary, Sylvester Imonina Esq. advised Deltans not to vote the PDP back in power in 2023, adding that it will be preposterous for the people to continue to leave the leadership of the State in the hands of those who have no regards for fathers and mothers that have laboured and sacrificed themselves for the service of the State.
“The emotional laden message, filled with tales of sorrow; signed by the State Chairman of the body is a reminiscence of yesteryears slavery and man inhumanity to man.
“In the said birthday message of the senior citizens, a picture of how several members of the body die before attaining the age of 63, which Chief James Ibori recently, celebrated was painted.
“They were unequivocal on how the PDP led-Government of Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa has reduced them to walking ghosts.
“Though, there is not a lot gainsaying the fact that Chief Ibori laid the foundation for the present crops of insensitive PDP Leadership in the State, which gave birth to what the senior citizens are suffering; but they felt Chief Ibori would be able to speak the language Sen. Okowa hears, hence their cry to him to prevail on the Governor for succour”, he said.
APC empathized with the retired local government staff and primary school teachers who have been subjected to untold hardship since 2015 when they left the service, lamenting that Gov. Okowa had so far paid deaf ears to their plight.
It called on Deltans to be ready to effect a change of guard come 2023 when the opportunity will come to decide on the best political party to deliver the dividends of democracy including proper and adequate attention to the senior citizens of the State.
“From available information at our disposal, those who retired from active service since 2014; which is well over seven years are yet to receive their pensions and gratuities. What a Government!
“It is annoying and painful that PDP led-Government in the State brags, and feels that no amount of hardships meted on Deltans, PDP will still have its way in future elections and governance of the State. What a sadistic mentality!
“All of us should prepare to end PDP led-Government locust’s reign in the State. Affairs of our dear State cannot continue to be left in the hands of those who see our fathers and mothers as less human,” the statement added.
Reacting to the position of the APC on the plight of the State retirees, the PDP described the opposition party’s criticism of the government as a display of crass ignorance and idiocy, urging it to get its facts right.
In a statement issued by the State Publicity Secretary of the party, Dr. Ifeanyi Osuoza, the party commended Gov. Okowa’s effort to address the plight of the retirees, adding that the PDP government in the State was taking visible steps to reach out to all pensioners by ensuring that all of them are enrolled in the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS to enable them get their rightful dues.
“We are once again constrained to challenge the exhibition of falsehood and bad manners displayed by the APC megaphones and their sponsors to ignorantly attack the excellent efforts of PDP administrations over the years to put the matter of civil servants and pensioners on the front burner, starting with our affable leader, His Excellency, Chief James Onanefe Ibori who, with sheer adroitness, laid the transformation foundation on which his successors have built upon to make Delta a State that cannot be ignored.
“It is an acknowledged, incontrovertible fact across the length and breadth of Delta State that under the Chief James Ibori administration, civil servants had their lives transformed completely, with many who never thought they could ever own houses and drive cars, actually bought cars of their own and became landlords.
“Pension was paid to pensioners as a matter of priority, including those inherited from the defunct Bendel State and those who retired in Delta State.
“His successor, Dr. Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan made an impressionable impact with his three-point agenda with human capital development as one of the administration’s priorities, which he diligently implemented and achieved a huge success. He improved on the package of achievements made by Chief Ibori, with retirees getting paid, until the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) was established under the Pension Reform Act of 2004, which required sincere, painstaking administrative, bureaucratic compliance to get old and emerging retirees to get enrolled, in order to checkmate fraudulent and other sharp practices until that too was repealed and replaced with the Pension Reform Act in 2014”, the statement noted.
It also explained that the Okowa-led administration in the State inherited the new Pension Reform Act of 2014 which comes with a burden of over N100 billion for the government to remit to the Contributory Pension Scheme before the Pension Administrator can commence disbursement of benefit to the retirees.
“The administration of the peoples’ Governor, Senator, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa inherited the new Pension Reform Act of 2014, on taking over the mantle of leadership, in 2015.
“It is pertinent at this juncture, to educate the ignorant APC and correct its wild comments and reckless, dangerous misunderstanding of the pension modalities, that the new pension reforms act of 2014, mandates a minimum contribution of 10 and eight percent of employees monthly emolument by the employer and employee respectively. This is paid into the employee’s Retirement Savings Account (RSA).
“It was also mandatory that the new pension reforms would be actualized through the Biometric capture of those eligible to be enrolled and this new directive was challenging especially against the backdrop of an inherited pension regime that was operated manually, under the old Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS).
“To fully implement the scheme, a State has to at least establish a Pension Bureau, register its employees with Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), remit 10 percent employer and eight percent employees’ pension contributions for employees, conduct an actuarial valuation, open retirement benefits bond redemption fund account, fund accrued pension rights and group life insurance policy.
“The above scenario was what the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa inherited when he assumed the mantle of leadership in 2015 and even the NLC and pensioners themselves have acknowledged that the administration has done a fantastic job so far in ensuring that the civil service, which operated in the analogue mode for so many years is fully digitalized and biometrically compliant and it is an ongoing process since the civil service churns out retirees and pensioners every year, even as those already employed and new employees are also being enrolled, captured and updated biometrically”, the statement added.
The statement further stated that “For the avoidance of doubt, let us also inform the ignorant APC that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has taken the matter of retirees a notch higher, by reducing the State’s indebtedness on the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS of over =N=181billion to =N=50billion, thereby saving the State =N=95billion after review of the outstanding obligations.
“This reduction was achieved by the astute, pragmatic approach of the Governor Okowa administration, which collaborated with the Workers Unions in joint reconciliation exercises with organized labour and pension consultants.”
In spite of all the complex explanations which the state government is giving as excuses, the Association of Contributory Retirees, ACR, on the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, early July 2021, in a statement, said they have gone spiritual to seek solution to their plight, lamenting that Gov. Okowa appeared to have resolved to leave them to their fate.
A report by The Guardian had said the Vice Chairman of the Association, Anthony Osanekwu, in an interview disclosed that members of the body have gone to God to seek redress for the endless delay of payment of their pension benefits, adding that it will be futile to drag the government to court.
“We are not taking the state government to law court because we will not win. Delta is a secular state, no one takes the government to court here and thinks of winning, but we have gone to God’s court and very soon He will decide for the government to pay us our entitlements.
“We have carried out peaceful protests severally with placards, we have written series of letters to governor Okowa since he came on board, and also dragged the government to EFCC. Could you believe EFCC dribbled us here and there, asking us questions as if we were the accused persons? But in the end, EFCC said the matter was an administrative matter. So, we just laughed because God knows what happened”, the association stated.
Speaking with The New Diplomat on his sick bed in Effurun, Delta State, a retired Primary School Headmaster who disengaged from service in 2016 after the mandatory age of 60 years, Mr. Patrick Eruotor, lamented that he has resigned to fate, adding that his hope is buoyed on the faith he has that at the appropriate time, God will intervene to touch the heart of Okowa to address his plight.
Narrating his condition to our Correspondent, Eruotor recalled that he retired from the service in January 2016, adding that since then he has been knocked down by diabetes which has not only drained his little savings but his health with nothing available to provide for himself good medical care.
“I’ve been down for nearly six years now with diabetes. All my savings have been exhausted and my children are not even well off to cater for my health needs. I have been hoping against hope that Gov. Okowa would authorize the payment of our pension but to no avail.
“We have approached our Contributory Pension Administrator, Oak Company, but they keep insisting the problem is with the State government and that once the government gives go ahead, they will start payment of our pension.
“That is why we have appealed to the governor to discuss with the CPA so that they can release our own portion of contribution to us even if the government is unable to pay its own contribution.
“As I’m here now, I’m at the mercy of some of my benevolent relatives whom God is using to provide for me on a daily basis. But my hope is in God that one day He would touch the heart of Okowa to address the plight of the thousands of Deltans who, after several years of meritorious service, have retired with nothing to fall back on.”
Although, Gov. Okowa has explained that his government pays out N1.5 billion every month as pension to the State senior citizens, it is unclear if that amount include the sum due to paid to the over 5,000 retirees from Local Government Councils and Primary School teachers across the state.
