Among the most denied, neglected and frustrated pensioners in the country are Local government and primary school retirees. This category of pensioners has continued to suffer untold hardship across the country as many of them are owed years and months of unpaid gratuities, pensions and other benefits. Local government and primary school retirees in Delta State are no exception as many of them live in penury.
Speaking on the plight of these pensioners, Chairman of the primary school retirees, New Ejieh who retired in 2016, lamented their pathetic condition, saying, “We are feeling sad, we are feeling bad; some of us have died. Any little sickness, you won’t have money to buy common pain relievers.”
She prayed that the pensions would be paid as soon as possible to make life more meaningful for the pensioners.
Another primary school retiree and head teacher who left service in 2017, Charity Eguwe, said: “Let them be fast in the payment of our pension. If they pay, we will be very happy.’
Decrying the economic hardship and health challenges retirees are going through, she said: “To get money for medical attention is difficult, not to talk of feeding. If not for farming, the situation would have been worse.
“The situation presently is a very terrifying one. We have lost so many of our colleagues and we lost one a few days ago. He was an Assistant to me in the same school. He could not afford his treatment and feeding was a challenge. If you see him, you will not believe that he was once a teacher.”
A former local government staff who retired at level 13 described the delay in the payment of pension as painful and depressing.
The retiree who preferred anonymity, said “It has not been easy; it has been God all the way. It has been my prayer that this new government will defray the arrears because people are suffering.
“The only retirees that are not feeling the pains are those that are getting financial support or have some forms of investment. Due to children education, l could not establish anything and this is what is affecting me.
“Now that they are saying they want to pay, my appeal to them is to let this come to pass and l will give kudos to the present government because this problem has been lingering for a long time, so if the government can do it, it will be a credit to them and when they tell you this is what they want to do, you will believe them.”
Meanwhile, Chairman of the State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, Mr. Victor Ebonka, informed that the local government councils recently and “exclusively” borrowed N40 billion to defray the backlog of unpaid pensions, assuring that “any moment from now, the pensioners will smile home.”
Ebonka, while assuring that no penny from the N40 billion is going to the coffers of the local government councils, explained that the lingering problem was inherited from the two previous administrations.
He said “It has to do with an error in the enrollment into the contributory pension scheme. And for this short coming, we have found ourselves owing their accrued rights from 2016 to date.
“The past administration set a machinery in motion and has tried to ensure that the debt is liquidated by giving several grants totaling about N5 billion and increased statutory contribution from N200 million a month to N500 million.
Despite all these grants from the State Government, we have not been able to clear the outstanding arrears and this made the immediate past administration to set up a Committee comprising of myself the ALGON Chairman, the Head of Service and other stakeholders.
“The Committee went to the bond market to get a facility but was not successful because the cost of funds was quite expensive. We approached the commercial bank to get the facility and we can say that the bank has agreed to afford us N40 billion out of the N51 billion indebted to the pensioners.
“So it is exclusively the Local Government Councils that are borrowing this money. You know that by law, we need the approval of the State Government and the ratification of the State Assembly and that was sort for and it was granted by the Governor and approved by the State House of Assembly.
“So any moment from now, the pensioners will smile home. We also want to state that no penny from the N40 billion is going to the coffers of the Local Governments. We are going to cover about ninety percent of the accrued rights from this money, all of the monies will be paid directly to the pensioners.”
