Government Thinks We Are Dead Woods

Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Lagos branch, Alhaji Nojeemudeen Adebayo, was almost weeping as he reeled out the challenges faced by pensioners in Nigeria in this interview with EROMOSELE EBHOMELE

What is the significance of the annual Pensioner’s Day Celebration?
It is a day set aside by the Federal Government for us to meet and celebrate it as a day of birth for pensioners. It is an occasion meant to measure our triumphs and travails in terms of payment of pensions, implementation of arrears. It is also meant to discuss issues like increases arising from pension and salaries. It is also to know about the welfare of each member and the way they are living, because there has never been a style living for us, even though we are called senior citizens. It is unfortunate that we’ve not been accorded those things that would make us feel like senior citizens.

What are some of those things you wish you wish you were accorded as senior citizens?
In many countries in the western world, senior citizens enjoy even more than the working class in terms of shelter, standard of living, medical services and transportation. There are provisions for housing schemes for them so that at retirement, you can move in till the day death comes, rather than moving from one place to another in search of shelter. If senior citizens are going out in those countries, they are transported free of charge. In this country, we enjoy the same things being enjoyed by the younger ones, we also suffer the same things they suffer, and our own suffering is even greater. We go to the same market. Our meagre salary, if not supported by our wards, will not be anything. We are begging the government to please look into our plight in terms of medical services, free transportation; at least we should enjoy what people in politics and the civil service enjoy. Majority of them are still young, because they were retired before their due date. We wish they could give us opportunity to go on pilgrimages as is being given to politicians. During festivals, there should be a special package for pensioners to appreciate us.

What do you think the government should do about your alleged rigorous verification exercise for pensioners?
The verification exercise is one thing we discuss at such events like the Pensioners’ Day celebration. The last verification we did for the federal pensioners was too rigorous. The exercise came up during the rainy season and you could see how old men and women were badly drenched by the heavy downpour. My wish is that it should be decentralised and should not be an annual thing. I said it days ago at a certain lecture: Why do you have to be screening pensioners every year? We grow old day by day. You needed to see pensioners who were carried there by their children. For some of my colleagues, their blood pressure would rise in the presence of their children. Some would be very tired.

During the one that was carried out in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos State, the state government provided an ambulance for any eventuality and we were happy. We also did not have any casualty. Those who got tired in the process were quickly attended to, but this was not like that in other places. Let me tell you, majority of our leaders have been abroad, they studied and worked there before they came here to take up appointments. They know what being a pensioner is outside here, but in this country, we are left alone. Our matter is never discussed with utmost concern in both houses of the National Assembly. Pensioners should not be pushovers in this country, because the work we did and retired from is still the work people are doing now, if they retire too, others would continue from there. So they should leave a good legacy. In western countries, how are the pensioners verified without having to pass through these rigorous methods?
One other thing we are troubled about is the issue of arrears. Whenever there is going to be an increase for those who are working, pensioners should be carried along too, so that by the time the implementation would be effected, it would cut across. This is not so now because we still have to go begging and negotiating three, four or five years after the increment. Some governments will say they have no money to pay such arrears. They call us dead woods. They really look down on us. Many of our governors worked in various places and got their entitlements when they were leaving. We still have three years unpaid arrears with the Lagos government. As at now, we are still with the authorities in Alausa and we were told that payment is at an advanced stage, and that we would be paid soon. But we want it to come very, very soon. It is like a law court where justice delayed is justice denied. Majority of states in the country have paid these arrears of 142 per cent which came when former President Olusegun Obasanjo was in his first term. We are still struggling to receive the balance here in Lagos. Again, Obasanjo made another increase of twelve and a half per cent for workers and by the time the Federal Government was to approve for us, it approved only six per cent, forgetting that we buy from the same market. In 2007, the Federal Government again approved 15 per cent for workers and pensioners. Currently we are still pursuing the 142 per cent, which has not been paid while the other six and 15 per cent are yet to be talked about. Pensioners die daily and when they die, their arrears are not paid. We want a situation where if an increase comes when a pensioner is still alive, his arrears should be paid to his next of kin when he dies.

It is in the constitution that every five years, pensions should be reviewed. We also need (pensions payment)to be harmonised. There are still some pensioners in the country who earn below N2,000.

What will they do with N2,000?
I don’t know, my brother. The constitution stipulates that the minimum wage should be the minimum pension paid. If this is so in Nigeria, any pensioner who retired as a labourer would still be earning something worthwhile and taking care of himself. There are some pensioners who have no wards to care for them. In this country, it is even disheartening to know that many of those who are working are not different from the pensioners with regard to suffering. If the fuel subsidy is removed today, pensioners are in soup, or are we not going to transport ourselves? Kerosene which is generally used throughout the country is going to N1,000 per gallon. If a pensioner earns N6,000 monthly, how can he buy a gallon of kerosene and still have money to feed himself and family if he has nobody to assist him? You can easily see pensioners walking wretchedly on the street. Is the government asking us to retire and die

Don’t you think it would be better that you take the plea to the National Assembly?
How many more times would we continue to do that? The National Assembly has a Committee on Pensions. When Mr. Oronsaye was there as the Head of Service, he introduced a biometric system of verification, but they claimed the system tech did not understand what the system was doing. The immediate past Head of Service said his own was revalidation and we were supposed to do it for three weeks. At the end of the three weeks, it was extended with another two weeks and by the time the five weeks lapsed, that was when the National Assembly felt that the exercise should be stopped, maybe because one lawmaker had a family member involved in the exercise which resulted in the death of some pensioners. I have always said this generation is a suffering one and the government that is supposed to care for us doesn’t bother. And I know that people are very, very angry. The government has no excuse but to do what it is supposed to do for the people including those of us who are waiting for death. Imagine we can’t travel on good roads in the country. Bad roads are part of the reasons pensioners die during verification exercises. After travelling to the venue on the bad roads, he would be very weak and if not allowed to rest, can just slump. What do we enjoy?

I however thank the Lagos State government for paying pensions as at when due, but our arrears and increases on pensions should be immediately looked at. Our people are seriously suffering and they have sometimes accused the exco of being bribed. The government should ensure our arrears are paid. Pensioners Day celebration is even supposed to be sponsored by the government. We do strain ourselves to ensure it is successfully organised.