The way you see people
is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become – Johann Wolfang Von Goethe.
If someone told Imo pensioners sometime in 2009, that one day,
they would be pushed to the wall, and then made to forfeit part of their
entitlements, they would say it was unthinkable. But that is exactly what they
have been confronted with as we rolled on with the Change Agenda in the state.
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| *Gov Rochas Okorocha of Imo State |
Yes, they wanted Change, but they have got chains as lamented by
one of them last October. Since 1999, when this Nigerian new democratic
experience started Imo, pensioners were paid their entitlements monthly without
any hick ups, till May 2015, when government began to owe them, pension arrears
started to build up, and by December 2016, most pensioners were owed 19 months
arrears because some money was paid in August 2016. Some were owed for more
than 20 months.
By mid last year, government started their dribbling, which we call mago-mago treatment of these retirees. First, without any consultations, or discussions with the pensioners concerned, they reduced the length of time of claim of each pensioner, and announced that those owed for 19 months would be paid only for 11 months, while those owed for 20 months and above would be paid for 12 months.
Government accepted to pay full entitlements to only those who
retired at salary grade levels 1-7, the junior cadres. Second, after gauging
the body language of these helpless, senior citizens, the state government
considered it appropriate to hit the elders below the belt, by taking away a
substantial proportion of their entitlements disingenuously.
They came out with a letter of set off addressed to the Accountant
General of the state, a sample verbiage of which is reproduced here for
understanding:
“I,… a pensioner,
having retired on a salary grade level…from… with monthly pension of N85,
204.80; Being owed arrears of pension for 11 months which amounts to
N937,252.80 do hereby accept, to collect 40% of the said arrears which amounts
to N374,901.12 which represents the total accumulated arrears due to me up to
December 2016, as full and final settlement of all other claims of which I am
entitled to make against the State Government in respect of the said
accumulated Pension Arrears. I voluntarily accept this payment due to economic
situation in the country presently. I do hereby release and discharge the Imo State
The pensioner would sign, thumbprint, and have his Traditional
Ruler to sign as his witness, to the set off letter containing his bank
details, and stating the name of his SDC Ward Coordinator, an APC creation.
After owing them for 19 months, and more for some, many would have died in
their thousands and now, those of them who refused to die, must forfeit a good
portion of their claims or entitlements as a punishment.
