BEVERLY HILLS, August 11, (THEWILL) – The Flogging and beating up of retirees by hoodlums suspected to be working for the state government in Owerri, Imo state capital during a peaceful protest to demand payment of their six months outstanding pensions has attracted public outcry with many calling on the authorities to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to justice. The retirees as investigations have shown resorted to protest after a series of meetings and resolutions with the state government failed.
Different groups have condemned the act, describing it as inhuman and against good conscience. They wondered why a request for one’s legitimate earnings and entitlements should be met with such horrible treatment much less on supposedly senior citizens who laboured to keep the wheel of the civil service operations rolling during their working days.
Those who witnessed the attacks on the retirees recounted that aside from flogging, the protesting retirees were bathed with mud from the drainage, kicked and punched by the hoodlums, a terrible sight to bear. The retirees despite the ensuing melee, resolved to be undeterred and continued their march, a move which further aggravated the anger of the attackers as they viciously confronted the protesters making many of them to sustain varying degrees of injuries while some lost their personal belongings.
BudgIT, a Nigerian civic, non-profit organization promoting transparency, accountability in budget and public resources using infographics, data analysis and presentation in 2018 reported that about 20 states in Nigeria are owing pensioners despite collecting huge sum of N1.8 trillion in bailouts from the federal government and other substantial amounts from the Paris Club debt refund. Unfortunately, current realities show that some of those states that collected these funds still refused to clear months of pension arrears they owed the retired workers.
A look at the data from those states in Nigeria having a field day with backlogs of unpaid pensions will further explain why many frustrated pensioners would want to take to the streets and in some cases end their lives as evidence has shown.
In Abia state for instance, pensioners have resigned to fate as many are feeding from hand to mouth with several months of unpaid pension arrears. It is a tale of woes when the retirees, some in their 80s recount their ordeal. In August 2019, thousands of pensioners in Abia poured into the street to protest 32 months unpaid pension, totalling about N21 billion. If you think the state is poor or resource disadvantaged, you are totally wrong, Abia State is an oil-producing state with an estimated gross domestic product (GDP) in excess of $12.5 billion, so it is befuddling why a state so blessed will be struggling with a high level of indebtedness in pension arrears.
In 2017, a survey conducted by BudgIT shows that states like Niger, Taraba, Rivers and Imo were top in the list on pension defaulters. Niger owed 38 months, Taraba 26, Rivers 28, Imo owed 24 while Benue state owed 12 months.
A retired pensioner in Benue while being interviewed by a Guardian reporter in a very heart wrenching voice lamented his deplorable living condition. The non-payment of pension arrears has subjected him to ‘They don’t care about us,’ mentality. ‘The past state government even referred to us as deadwood,’ Alphonsus Anyebe says, with disappointment written all over him. ‘The only thing that has kept me going is just my small farming’. Anyebe, who is 63, says of the farming he does in his backyard that barely provides food for his family. His children cannot go to school and currently sit at home, as he cannot afford to pay their tuition fees. Anyebe is one of many Nigerian pensioners who are unable to pay their children’s school fees because they are owed retirement benefits.”
Instances abound of aged pensioners who have slumped ostensibly out of exhaustion while waiting in a long queue to be captured during biometrics and verification exercise introduced by the government to weed out ghost pensioners. More excruciating are those who died during protests or waiting to clear some documentation issues.
In 2005, Hassan Baibako, 80, while heeding the Federal Government’s directive that all pensioners should report at their state capitals for a verification exercise slumped and died at the venue as a result of exhaustion from a long wait on the queue. Guardian news reported that the late Baibako worked with the Adamawa State Department of Land and Survey for over 30 years before his retirement.
“With his unpaid pension arrears running into eight months, Baibako, described as an early riser, rushed to Ribadu Square in Yola, the Adamawa State capital to be screened.” “It turned out to be his last trip alive. Baibako after waiting endlessly on the queue ran out of strength. He slumped and his frail-looking colleagues could not garner enough energy to help him.”
“When an ambulance finally came and took him to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Pa Baibako had passed to the great beyond.”
A sad tale it was but the truth remains that many pensioners are reeling under the burden of accumulated pension arrears. And more worrisome is the stark reality that some of them rely on their pension for survival. The anguish of seeing your years of labour and toiling being rewarded with such deprivations and indignation can only be imagined. These pensioners have been made to embrace very strenuous activities like farming and carpentry in their old ages to meet their basic needs.
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