By Our Correspondent, Makurdi
AS Nigeria today marks 21 years of uninterrupted civilian or democratic governance, workers and pensioners in Benue State have little or nothing symbolic to point to as representative of a dividend of democracy worthy of celebration. The mood, our findings indicate, is rather that of mourning.
For Benue’s working class, the past twenty years, and particularly the last couple of years have been a mix of neglect, despondence and tension in the context of their sheer abandonment by the state. For majority of pensioners, particularly the aged, the situation is akin to hell or purgatory – the period witnessed a harvest of deaths from among the state’s senior citizens who had dedicated their lives to public service at both the level of the state and local governments.
Rather than reaping the reward by resting in comfort for dedicating the most productive part of their lives in service to the state, it has been tears, lamentation and psychological torture for survivors of unpaid pensions. Majority of the survivors, we gather are those who have kith and kin to depend on. Even then, those whose spirits could no longer cope with the torture of denial of their meagre stipend caved in to death with close family members writhing in pain from lashings of existential challenges as most of them too are not faring better.
National Record gathered that in Benue’s urban and rural communities, it is a daily dirge as hardly a day passes without the passage of dozens of retirees to the great beyond. Our findings reveal that the common causes of death of pensioners across the state are related to hunger and the lack of capacity to buy medications to treat age-related ailments.
The pathetic story of Benue pensioners, we are told is not new, but that it is only progressively aggravating as there seems to be no conscious and systematic effort to evolve a formula that will ease the logjam in payment.
“Governor Ortom started crying after he claimed: ‘How can Suswam treat the people this way, how does he expect their families to feed or survived?’ Politicians who stood by him offered him handkerchiefs to wipe his tear-filled eyes. Under him, the government’s indebtedness to pensioners has more than tripled. Even arrears of salaries to civil servants have increased from the three months he lamented to about several months,” the retired teacher said, adding that as at today, the Benue State government still owes workers the seven months it jumped from June to December 2018.
The challenge of payment of pensions dates back to the Governor George Akume administration. The situation worsened slightly during the administration of Akume’s successor, Rt. Honourable Gabriel Suswam. It was only towards the end of the Suswam era that Benue pensioners drew national attention when they cried out in agony against the then six months arrears owed them.
In the current dispensation under Governor Samuel Ortom, the condition of pensioners depreciated beyond their pre-2015 expectation as all their hopes were smashed on the ground. They had hoped that with the massive support they gave his governorship candidacy which saw him emerge victorious at the polls against all odds, the emergent Governor Ortom would quickly respond to their cries. From all indications, that has not been.
While National Record sought and spoke to a number of pensioners, ranging from the rank and file retiree civil servants to retired permanent secretaries, directors and deputy directors as well as retired teachers, however, they all pleaded anonymity citing fears of victimisation or harassment. A retired Chief Nursing Officer explained that naming respondents may mean total removal of their names from payment schedule when the time for payment comes.
According to a retired Permanent Secretary, senior citizens are so disappointed on Governor Ortom’s disposition towards pensioners because they not only prayed for him to be elected, they mobilised grassroots support for him. He said the governor is repaying their confidence in him with the severest of punishments.
“Previous leaders punished pensioners so much that we prayed to God to give us a leader that will lighten our burden. But as it is, the leader we prayed and canvassed support for is telling us in clear terms that if his predecessor in office punished us with cane and scorpions, he will punish us with snakes rather than the bread we asked for,” the retiree said.
According to a retired Deputy Director, while former Governor Suswam, at the twilight of his regime, owed about six months of unpaid pensions, the Governor Ortom leadership of the state has stretched the pension arrears to 20 months for state’s pensioners and 25 months for retired local government employees.
A retired secondary school teacher told our correspondent their current predicament flows against the hope inspired in them by Candidate Ortom during his campaign. He said Ortom was so convincing during a campaign rally in Otukpo where he literally broke down and cried when he was talking about the non-payment of pensions by Governor Suswam.
“Governor Ortom started crying after he claimed: ‘How can Suswam treat the people this way, how does he expect their families to feed or survived?’ Politicians who stood by him offered him handkerchiefs to wipe his tear-filled eyes. Under him, the government’s indebtedness to pensioners has more than tripled. Even arrears of salaries to civil servants have increased from the three months he lamented to about several months,” the retired teacher said, adding that as at today, the Benue State government still owes workers the seven months it jumped from June to December 2018.
He said the state government commenced payment from January 2019 after jumping the seven months, a situation which he said the Ortom government is using to now boast that he is up to date in the payment of salaries to the state’s workers.
According to a local government retiree, apart from the 25 months owed retired local government workers, serving employees of the state’s local governments have gone unpaid for an upward of 12 months.
“The current administration of Governor Ortom has displayed nonchalance and disregard for the plight of both serving and retired workers. Retirees are dying in their numbers on a daily basis; especially pensioners who are afflicted with diabetes and high blood pressure because they cannot afford their prescribed drugs and even basic food,” the retired staff of Makurdi local government area stated.
“While it is true that the state has for some time faced security challenges, allocations to combatting the insecurity should be done in a way that is open and accountable, vetted by the State House of Assembly. The way and manner the security vote is being expended is a recipe for fraud, not only in Benue but all states of the federation,” said the retired director in a chat with National Record in her residence at Judge’s Quarters, Makurdi.
A retired Deputy Director is of the opinion that the non-payment of salaries and pension is not due to lack of financial resources by the state government. He said it is rather a case of unwillingness on the part of the leadership in view of the loan profile the state government has so far accessed since the emergence of the Ortom administration in addition to the Paris Club refund that the government got, apart from internally generated revenue, which he claimed has increased overtime.
The retiree accused the government of expending these funds more on settling the entitlements of political appointees and on contracts and projects whose impacts are not being felt at the expense of workers entitlements.
“While it is true that the state has for some time faced security challenges, allocations to combatting the insecurity should be done in a way that is open and accountable, vetted by the State House of Assembly. The way and manner the security vote is being expended is a recipe for fraud, not only in Benue but all states of the federation,” said the retired director in a chat with National Record in her residence at Judge’s Quarters, Makurdi.
“It is on note that the Ortom administration has more than any other before it taken loans amounting to several billions of naira from any bank that cares to give, thereby mortgaging the financial freedom of the state, yet refusing to pay the heavy indebtedness to civil servants and pensioners.
“This is apart from the internally generated revenue – IGR – which only the government knows the amount being generated per month, although people speculate a figure between N1.5 billion to N2 billion every month,” said the retired senior officer from the Office of the Auditor General of the state.
He said the State House of Assembly, if willing to exercise its powers, can make meaningful intervention to relatively check the excesses of the executive arm in terms of fiscal discipline instead of watching “unperturbed” as the executive pushes the state into a “huge burden of indebtedness” and “bringing miseries upon the people they claimed to represent.”
In her own view, a retired Director from the Accountant General’s Office said the volume of money allocated as security vote in a state that is unable or unwilling to pay its workers as and when due, is not only socially reckless and irresponsible but also morally reprehensible.
“When questions were raised over the unwillingness to pay salaries and outstanding arrears despite Federal Government’s financial intervention, the Governor was quick to defend his N500 million security vote. Despite the so-called lack of financial resources, which to some extent is real, this money is religiously deducted before allocations to other ministries and parastatals are shared, and this includes the payment of workers.
“While it is true that the state has for some time faced security challenges, allocations to combatting the insecurity should be done in a way that is open and accountable, vetted by the State House of Assembly. The way and manner the security vote is being expended is a recipe for fraud, not only in Benue but all states of the federation,” said the retired director in a chat with National Record in her residence at Judge’s Quarters, Makurdi.
She said when the federal government asked states to submit their debt profiles so as to get relief during Governor Ortom’s first tenure, Benue’s total debt profile, which included unpaid workers salaries and pensions, was put at N28 billion. She said when substantial sum of the debt was released to the state, along with the Paris Club refund; more than half of the debts still remain unpaid. “The state makes money from IGR and got huge loans from commercial banks but all seem to have been spent, yet poor Benue workers and pensioners are left to device their own means of survival,” she concluded.
A retired headmaster in Otukpo Local Government Area of the state, Mr. U. I. Owoicho, who did not object to being named, told National Record that his late wife, also a teacher, died in active service and up till now, her death benefits, including the seven months owed her before her death has not been paid.
Mr. Owoicho said since his retirement two years ago, he was yet to be paid his gratuity, let alone the pension, which he said, never comes, as he lamented and cursed those he said have made the payment of the pension impossible.
While efforts to see Comrade Peter Kyado, the Chairman of the Benue State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), failed, as he was said to have travelled out of the state capital, Makurdi.
However, a copy of a memorandum written by the state chapter of the NUP, signed by Comrade Kyado and the Secretary of the chapter, Comrade Joseph Adakole, and made available to our correspondent, gave specific highlights of the unpaid arrears.
In the memorandum, with reference number CP/NUP/BN/Vol. III, dated May 13th 2019 and addressed to the Chairman of Benue State Transition Committee, Makurdi, titled: “MEMORANDUM PRESENTED TO THE BENUE STATE 2019 TRANSITION COMMITTEE OF GOVERNOR SAMUEL ORTOM ON THE PLIGHT OF BENUE STATE PENSIONERS,” the NUP stated that at the inception of the present administration in 2015, the pensioners were owed an outstanding six months of unpaid pension by both the state and local government councils. Those figures have now risen to 19 months for state and 24 months for the local government areas.
According to NUP, the monthly state’s pensions’ bill was about N600 million per month, with the total bill for the 19 months being N11.40 billion. The NUP also lamented that while the release of funds for payment of gratuity over the years has not only been very meagre and irregular, but that in the past five years of Ortom’s administration, gratuities have remained unpaid.
The NUP also bemoaned the non-implementation of Pension Review Act of 2004 in Benue state, stressing that the twelve and half per cent of 2003, 15% in 2007, 38% in 2008, 33% and 55% in 2008 and the 240% of the national minimum wage of 2011 were not implemented in the state. It pointed out that for the avoidance of doubt; this is a statutory matter as contained in section 210 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
The NUP stated in the memorandum thus: “We wish to thank your committee for creating an avenue for the people of Benue State to present their views on how to move the state forward via the Townhall Meeting. We, the Concerned Pensioners are particularly happy that the opportunity enables us to air our views on Benue Pensioners’ plight with the hope that your committee will finally address the issues.
“At the inception of this administration in 2015, we presented to the Governor issues affecting the pensioners requiring the attention of government. These issues are:
“a) Outstanding monthly pensions of both State and Local Government Pensioners, which at that time was six (6) months and now Nineteen months for the State and Five (5) to twenty-five months (25 for the Local Government Pensioners.
“For the State pensioners, the pension bill is about six hundred million (N600m) per month. The total bill for the nineteen (19) months is eleven billion, four hundred million (11.4bn) for the local government; the pensioners are paid in batches. Consequently, they are owed as follows: Batch A, sixteen (16) months amounting to one billion, four hundred million (N1.4bn) Naira; Batch B, twenty-two (22) months amounting to five billion, Five Hundred Million (N5.5bn) Naira; Batch C, five months amounting to nine hundred and twenty-five million (925m) naira. The total of these three batches is seven billion, nine hundred million (N7.9bn) Naira.
“It is to be noted that Batch B were earlier owed pension arrears ranging from 40 to 70 months. At present, there are over 900 retirees waiting to be placed on pension amounting to over N120 million.
“a) Backlog of gratuities: Release of money for payment of gratuity since the present administration has been very meagre and irregular to the extent that gratuities to pensioners for the past five (5) and counting have remained unpaid.”
The NUP in the memo gave four suggestions on how the state government is to approach the payment of the arrears. First, it asked the government to defray local government pension by harmonising the three batches into one. Two, it suggested that the 900 “retirees of the local government should be placed immediately on pension as they retire to avoid arrears. The third suggestion was an emphatic request to pay all outstanding pension arrears at both state and local governments to avoid further suffering of pensioners as well as prioritise payment of pension on a monthly basis. The final suggestion was the demand to pay gratuities in bulk and in the order of first-retire-first-to be-paid basis.
When several months after the memorandum nothing was done to alter the situation, the pensioners decided to take their grievances to Government House Makurdi in a sit-in protest that lasted for a week. In the sit in protest, held in between first to second week of September 2019 when the governor was marking his second tenure’s 100 days in office, three pensioners were said to have died at the Government House gate, and many others after they called off the protest, from the effects of staying under rain and typical hot Makurdi sun.
While the pensioners are said to be currently in court over the implementation of the percentages referred to in their memorandum, National Record also gathered that frustrated and confused by the hopelessness of their situation, the state’s pensioners recently approached Pastor E. A. Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Church of Nigeria, where the governor is believed to be a worshipper, to perhaps sway him to pay their accrued pension arrears.
In an SOS letter to the Pastor Adeboye, dated 30th April 2020 and titled “PLIGHT OF BENUE CIVIL PENSIONERS: APPEAL TO SAVE OUR SOULS (SOS)” the pensioners who noted that they are not able to append their names and signature to the plea letter “because we have a feeling that if for any reason our names are exposed to him, that may spell doom for us” asked the General Overseer to intervene to “save them.”
The pensioners stated in detail thus: “Calvary greetings to you in the glorified name of Jesus Christ.
“We pensioners in Benue State have a matter that we strongly feel requires your urgent intervention to save our souls. It has to do with the non-payment of our monthly pensions for the past twenty (20) months (September 2018 – April 2020); these exclude three months owed during former Governor Suswam’s era.
“How does Daddy G.O. come in? The man at the helm of affairs in Benue State, Dr Samuel Ortom is a strong member of your church and we believe that your intervention will save the situation.
“i. State pensioners are being owed gratuities of not less than 11 years.
“ii. 23 months of monthly pensions
“iii. Local Government pensioners are being owed up to 62 months of pension arrears.
“iv. Primary school teachers are NEVER PAID pension arrears when they retire
“v. Gratuities are NEVER PAI to both primary school Teachers and LG workers
“vi. LG staffs are being owed 9 months and primary school teachers 10 months’ arrears.”
“Sir, there are certain details which we feel compelled to relate to you. In July 2019, we the pensioners in Benue State, out of frustration and sheer desperation embarked on demonstration at the gate of Government House for one week.
Pensioners during the one-week protest. (Source, Daily Trust)
“The retirees, mostly older people, were subjected to the elements (sun and rain) and in the process three of these older citizens lost their lives. While we were there, the governor initially ignored us but when he eventually turned up to address us, this is what he said and we quote: “I don’t know why I am not paying you people this money. After all, some of you earn as low as N1,000 and you use this money to buy drugs. I don’t know why I am not paying you this money.” This statement can be verified from the media organisations that covered this meeting with pensioners.
“Apart from buying drugs with the meagre pensions, pensioners’ children have dropped out of schools (from primary to tertiary institutions), those in rented accommodation have been quitted from their accommodation for inability to pay rent on them and worse of all, several of us have died and are still dying.
“Our worry is that the last time state pensioners were paid was in November 2019 and the payment was for August 2018. Since then, no word has come out from the governor as to why this is so.
“It is in the light of this sir, Daddy G.O., that we appeal to you to please and please appeal to our Governor, Dr Samuel Ortom to have mercy on us by paying our monthly pensions that have accumulated for twenty (20) months (September 20 to April 2020). We make this request believing that as a sheep in your fold, he will listen to you and act accordingly.
“We are not courageous enough to indicate our names because we have a feeling that if for any reason our names are exposed to him, that may spell doom for us. Please sir, bear with us for troubling you since we know you have a crowded schedule. May God use you to lighten our burdens.”
Allegation of Politicising Pension Payment
A curious development which our correspondent came across was the allegation that Governor Ortom is capitalising on the desperate situation of the pensioners to lubricate the wheel of his ambition to contest for the senate seat in his senatorial zone. To achieve this, the governor is said to have instructed the payment of pension to pensioners from his MINDA axis of Benue Zone B.
While our efforts to get a list containing names of pensioners from the MINDA axis said to have been sent from Government House for the payment of arrears of their gratuities failed as the officer-in-charge at the pensions office not only refused to make the list available but also declined to make comments. However, our correspondent was able to snap a portion of the list that was posted on the notice board at the pension office.
Government Reacts
When contacted, the Benue State government denied that the non-payment of pension was behind the alleged ongoing multiple deaths of pensioners in the state.
Still during the one-week protests. (Source, Daily Trust)
The Principal Special Assistant (PSA) on Media to Governor Ortom, Honourable Nathaniel Ikyur, told National Record via telephone that while he does not have basic facts on the entitlements of the state’s pensioners, it is not true that pensioners are dying every day, and that if there are deaths, such deaths couldn’t have been as a result of unpaid pensions but may be due to natural causes.
According to the PSA, though he doesn’t know the sequential payment structure but he is quite aware that the challenge of paying pension is one of the key concerns of Governor Ortom and that he has been doing everything for the past couple of months to activate a payment system that is not only flexible but sustainable.
He however promised to direct our enquiry to the Chairman of the Benue State Pension Commission, Mr Terna Ahua, who, he said, as a former Head of Service, is better placed to answer pension-related matters. He said the Pension Commission was set up basically to defray the arrears of pension and set up a crisis-free pension system in the state.
However, efforts by our correspondent to see the Chairman of the Pension Commission on Thursday failed as he was said to have been held up in an extended PDP caucus meeting throughout the day while our correspondent waited at his office up to 5pm when the office closed.
