Mr Chima Ikoro retired from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria in 2007. He tells DENNIS NAKU how he lost one of his eyes while waiting to get his entitlements from the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate despite writing several letters on the need to travel abroad for medical treatment to salvage the eye
What is the problem?
I had an eye problem. I went for surgery but it was not properly handled. So, there was a complication and it affected the two eyes. So, at one point I was almost blind until I was directed to the Eye Foundation Hospital along Isaac John Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos State.
Where did you have the first surgery?
I did the first surgery at a private hospital in Iriebe here in Rivers State. I saw people they had operated on and I thought they were doing well. So, I went there and the doctor did it. The problem was that he (doctor) did not give me options or instructions as to what and what to observe or what not to do after the operation and so on. So, I started using the eyes immediately and the eyes were infected. It was during the harmarttan period. It was mismanaged to the point that I could hardly see. So I continued managing it like that. For three years, I could not see, I even invited people to read for me until they recommended me to the Eye Foundation Hospital in Ikeja, GRA, Lagos.
So, when I got there, the doctor said he would see what he could do to manage the left eye. There was a mass of tissue he was observing behind the eye, that he didn’t know what it was. But first of all he was going to treat the right eye. So, he performed the surgery on the right eye. So, I started seeing and continued visiting him because the left eye at a point started giving me serious problems. Hot tears would be coming out of the eye with sharp pain at the back of my head. I am not seeing with this eye, yet it would not give me rest. I won’t have peace of mind and I can’t sleep at night. So I rushed back to the hospital. The doctor now with a team examined it, he said there was nothing they could do about the eye except I decided to seek further advice abroad.
What year was this?
It was 2018. I said okay, if that is the case doctor, give me a report. I still have some balance money to collect from the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate . That is my monetised pension arrears. If they can give it to me I can travel abroad to get the treatment. PTAD is for those who are said to be under defined pension benefits. Those who are not under contributory system. So, the doctor prepared the report and gave it to me. With that I applied to then Executive Secretary, Sharon Ikeazor. I didn’t have much reply and I could not be travelling to Abuja from Rivers State here because the situation was getting critical. Once it was 6pm, I couldn’t go outside. So, I engaged a lawyer to assist and follow the thing up for me. But I didn’t know the lawyer was based in Lagos. So he was writing, and he wrote several times and they agreed to pay. They asked me to bring all my bank statements spanning from the time I retired to the last date I submitted the statements. I sent in about 263 copies of my bank statements with all assurance that they were going to pay. You know in the civil service when you are doing things like these and they submit your bank statements, after that the next thing you are expecting is your money. So with that I started making contacts in India for doctors that could help me. But I could not give them a definite time when I would like to travel. After some months nothing came out. My lawyer had to write to them again. They said I had to wait for verification. We waited. The verification came around 2019 and I attended. After they verified me, I prepared my letter already. Incidentally, the person that came to supervise the verification was the man in charge of our parastatals pension directorate, one Mr Shelleng. I called him and said, please see my eye, see me physically and see the eye I have been complaining about, see how it is. I even showed him the passport photograph I just snapped that morning. That this is what I want to salvage by asking for my payment. He said okay I should give the letter to his secretary. I gave him the letter there. Incidentally, my lawyer who wrote those letters came for a court session in Port Harcourt and happened to meet Mr. Shelleng one-on-one and told him my predicament. He promised that getting back to Abuja he would do something about it. But we didn’t hear anything again. So he (Shelleng) told us that he had handed over to his successor, one Yusuf Kabir. He (Shelleng) has always presented himself like a friend and one who is prepared to help. At one point, he asked for my account number. I asked to myself how could he be asking for my account number when your agency was my pension, and you should know my account number. I still gave him the account number and he said something would be done the following week. But it was all in vain. So, when he told me he had handed over and briefed his successor about my case. I requested Kabir’s number and he sent his number to me. I called him and the man said, yes Shelleng had discussed the matter with him and he promised to do something. My confidence rose again, though I was still having serious pain. Kabir could not do anything. At one point he refused to pick up my calls. We sent letters both hard and soft copies, to the executive secretary, but nothing came out. Eventually I hired another lawyer, one Barrister David in Abuja so that he could go there personally. He went there and wrote a stinker to them. It was then they admitted that I was entitled to monetized pension arrears, and that as soon as money was available they would pay me. Since then, money is not available. And there is no evidence that they have written to the government about my case, at least on compassionate grounds. At a point I realised that the former executive secretary to whom I wrote when this matter started has left. This new one may not have been conversant with my case. Maybe they have not forwarded my case to her. So, I wrote personally to her, no response and I wrote again to be sure that the letter went to her office. This time they signed that they had received the letter. I explained how I was being treated and even told her that the matter might go public if such ill- treatment continued
But what worries me most is that during that time I was hoping that if I waspaid I could still travel abroad for treatment. Last year, I couldn’t go to Abuja again because of the COVID-19. So I went to save a life hospital in Port Harcourt here to see if I could get some relief. They checked and the doctor told me that this eye could not be salvaged. He advised that what I could do was to make sure I apply ointment in the eye. At times I will be battling to open this eye in the night. Any night I don’t apply the ointment, the eye will seem closed and I will be fighting to open it and it is stressful. Because I have been applying a lot of medication, that is why I am even talking to you now. If it was when I had that constant pain and discharge of hot liquid from the eye I won’t be comfortable talking to you. I know how much I spend monthly on medication. But now I have lost the eye. That is the summary, because PTAD, I won’t say the government, refused to send my case to the government, so that they could give my due. This amount is about N18m . That is why I lost my eye because they refused to pay me my entitlements, not that I’m borrowing. That is why I decided to talk to people.
Are you saying that the eye condition worsened because PTAD refused to pay your entitlements?
Yes, it got worse and eventually got damaged. I was told that I still have some chance if I can go overseas because they have the facilities to know what lies behind the eye. We kept emphasizing it in all the letters we wrote that this was a matter of urgency. But that fear has become a reality. I have lost an eye.
What is the condition of the right eye?
What I am using now is a lens, an implant. That is why I cannot do any hard work. It is as delicate as that. The right eye is not free. It is one of the things I want to sort out. A friend that travelled to India told me that she went there with an implant, but that the doctors removed the implant. I don’t know what they did and now she is seeing even without glasses. So, I was hoping going abroad will help me, but these people are holding my money for no reason.
When and what was your last communication with PTAD?
The last letter they gave us was in 2020. The letter said they acknowledged I had outstanding monetized pension arrears.
Do you still have the hope that you will get your money and make the trip abroad?
Yes, if they pay me now I can still travel. If not for anything, to improve on this right eye I’m still managing. I still want to keep it. If they cannot salvage the left eye, let them make the right eye stable for me because I’m in a very precarious situation now. If I do any little thing now, I will be in trouble. ,,
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