In this interview with ABIODUN NEJO, the Ekiti State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Joel Akinola, alleges that the state government is treating the senior citizens with levity, ignominy, and disrespect
We don’t get to hear stories of pensioners collapsing or dying in queues while expecting their pay in Ekiti as it is elsewhere. What is your secret?
You are talking about monthly pensions. The Ekiti government has been faithful in paying our monthly pensions regularly. The government does not owe us pensions for now, except the previous one owed us before 2018. These are seven months for local government pensioners and three months for state pensioners that have yet to be paid after several promises.
How are pensioners faring in Ekiti?
Regular payment of pensions has been helping pensioners to keep their bodies and souls together, to buy medications, feed some people that require assistance and to help others. If somebody owes you money, particularly gratuities and arrears of pensions, there is no way you will not be agitated, more so if these gratuities, which are supposed to be paid to you immediately when you retire, are not forthcoming.
Gratuity is the money that should stabilise you either to go into one business or the other that could generate income, or even go into farming, or to finish your house if you have not completed it. But there is disillusionment when that kind of huge amount of money, running into millions of naira for each pensioner, is not coming. Everything put together for council and state government pensioners in Ekiti State is running from N40bn to N50bn.
What has been the effect on individual pensioners?
It has made life miserable, miserable in the sense that, as old people, we need more attention and care. The body is ageing and needs maintenance. If the money is not there to maintain the body that is ageing, that body is bound to fail one day. That is why our members have such a high mortality rate because they cannot easily access Medicare.
With the present economic situation in the country, even buying drugs that will sustain an average old man is a fortune. If somebody is old and money is not forthcoming, life will be unbearable. Again, the government should realise that we have people who are dependent on us. We have some of our children that are unemployed and in homes that need to be taken care of. We need to eat good food. If you don’t eat well, drugs will not work. If you have money with you, you will have peace because a lack of money is a disaster, particularly in our society. Without money, it is a multiple tragedy; you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of your children, etc. and it appears the government is nonchalant about it.
What are pensioners in Ekiti owed?
The government owes local government pensioners seven months’ arrears while state pensioners are owed three months. When the government paid one month to workers in December, we thought that we would be paid. We were promised that we would be paid, but up till today, the promise has not been fulfilled. It is humongous if you add the pension arrears to the almost N40bn arrears of gratuities. A government official once said our pension arrears run to hundreds of millions.
How come the indebtedness is this high?
The impunity started a long time ago. When Governor Segun Oni was here, he cleared everything. The pensioners were not owed any gratuity. It was when Dr. Kayode Fayemi took over that things started to mount. He was paid for some time until he said he discovered some discrepancies and fraudulent practices in the pay process. He stopped sending money there, but should that be the solution? The solution was to discipline the erring staff and continue the payment. That led to the mounting debt.
When Governor Ayodele Fayose succeeded him, he continued to owe, saying since Fayemi could owe that much and nothing happened! At a point, Fayose started paying N10m in gratuities per month, which could not cover that of one person because an average permanent secretary would collect almost N13m to N14m in gratuity. Fayose did that for a few months and stopped.
Despite the fact that he collected several intervention funds, he did not do anything. It is still the debt that Fayemi ought to have paid then during the first term that we are agitating now. He is about to complete another four years of nothing. It is becoming another debt now for the incoming government.
What could be the genuine way out of the debt?
If the willingness to pay is there, the government can source funds from anywhere and pay. Any money paid to an average pensioner in Ekiti will circulate here, it will even generate income among traders; the economy will be enhanced; and it will help the revenue generation of the state government. It is money that brings money, but if you are hoarding money and you are not paying out to those people that should spend the money and employ more people, unemployment will continue to rise. The government can go to the bank and pay us. This money will generate itself back. We will spend it. When you spend money, you are improving the economy.
Another way was that there was a time the Fayemi government thought of going to the capital market. A large number of our members agreed, but it appeared the government was not serious. It was the same government that brought the idea that killed it.
That time, after consultation with our members, it was agreed that the maximum a pensioner could let go was 15%, but at the point of implementation, the government did not take the union along again. They called those who retired from 2012 to 2014 and said they should come to the Pension Transitional Arrangement Department. That is an arm of the government where the gratuities are being paid.
By the time they got there, it was discovered that the government had changed the 15% agreed with us to 25% with a circular backing it up. Our people went wild that they only tried to tolerate the 15% they had earlier agreed on. That was how the government killed the whole thing. Though the government denied that it was not the one that caused it, till today, no official of the government had been punished for that infraction.
But last week, Fayemi accused pensioners of allowing opposition elements to deceive them…
I read it. When politicians talk, they try to justify their actions. How could politicians deceive us at our age? We are elderly people, not civil servants — how can they deceive us against our will? Were we deceived by politicians to agree to 15% against our wishes? If the government has a policy, it is not everybody that will support it, but if the government has the will to implement it, it would have done it more if it had consulted with the pensioners and the policy was optional. It was not compulsory. If you are interested, go for it. If you were not, leave it. That we were deceived by politicians is out of the way. It is a defence mechanism by the government to shirk its responsibility because that method was purely optional. They gave us options of 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15%. The maximum was 15%. If the government really wanted to do it, it could have done it for those who were ready. We are old people. We are very vulnerable, and it is not in this old age that we should be rejected by the state that we served for 35 years or so.
In the civilised world, pensioners are treated with dignity and honour. They provided all the means of life for them so that they would enjoy what they had done for the state when they were active, so that there would be no cause for them to agitate. In fact, one would be happy to retire if the government treated pensioners with decency and gave them their rights at all times. I appeal to the government that they should prioritise the interests of pensioners.
Are you satisfied with pension reviews?
To some extent, pensions are not being reviewed. There have been many situations where the government ought to have reviewed pensions. That is why we have the situation of some pensioners earning N4, 000 or even less per month.
Every time there is an increase in the salary of workers, the government should review pensions accordingly every five years. That is what is in the Nigerian constitution, but unfortunately, the government is not doing it because of impunity. Where you have immunity, there will be impunity. They do whatever they like. The issue of pension and gratuities is statutory, but because pensioners are weak, we don’t have the power to strike or protest – can we go to the streets now? That would be very calamitous! That is why we have maintained our peace, but we will always use all legitimate means to demand our rights.
We will continue to talk to the government to listen to us. We are elderly people. We cannot fight. They should assist us because we are their parents and they should treat us so and not allow us to suffer in our old age. We have done our best for the state and we should not be allowed to suffer.
Across the country, it is the same story of neglect and abandonment of pensioners that we get to hear. Why do you think your members are being so treated?
It is because of age. As you are getting older, you are getting weaker, and your ability to agitate is waning. Our case is different from the case of workers whose agitation can paralyse the business of the government. In fact, Ekiti once had a governor who referred to pensioners as dead people. He said that he had not paid the salary of the living, much less the dead. It was very unfortunate that he could refer to elderly people as dead because they are weak and could not threaten his government.
Because we are vulnerable, they treat us with levity, with ignominy, with disrespect, nonchalance, and as if we are no more. That is the problem we have. Among our governors, it is as if they held a meeting against pensioners. Even states that are very rich are still treating pensioners badly. It depends on the integrity of the leadership of a state. If the leadership of a state has integrity and value for human lives, he would pay pensioners. He would not allow old people to suffer at old age because he will grow old one day too.
