Save pensioners from untimely death

The way the Federal Government workers who retired under the Contributory Pension Scheme are being treated calls for the intervention of every right-thinking Nigerian.

This plea becomes necessary since it seems the Federal Government is not concerned about the fate of this group of citizens who toiled day and night through their thirty-five years in service or till sixty years of age.

It will surprise the good people of this nation that as each worker retires, the Contributory Pension (Gratuity) which, hitherto is expected to be paid immediately at the disengagement of each person has continuously been delayed.

When the programme took off with the first batch of this order in 2008, workers had to stay for between four and six months before they were settled.

At the commencement of the Buhari administration, the payment got so worse that retired Federal Civil Servants waited up to 14 months before they were settled.

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As of now, the National Pension Commission has just settled those who retired in July last year. The worst part of the terrible experience is that monthly pensions are not paid to retired federal civil servants until the contributory pensions are paid, then arrears follow.

The most disturbing aspect of the case of these innocent people is that the hard-earned fund of these patriotic citizens who have toiled day and night, having to be transferred from one part of the country to another and even outside the country at times, were alleged to be borrowed by a government that claimed that the welfare of its citizens is paramount to it.

If monies raked on contributory pension are used as bonds to generate more funds to the coffers of government, must the main owners of the fund be allowed to suffer? No one will be happy with a government that engages in allowing retired workers to die due to its failure to pay their entitlements over one year after leaving the services of the fatherland.

This issue becomes so worrisome because capturing of workers of every year was done more than twelve months before each person retired.  These victims unfortunately are so helpless because the Pension Commission too said there was nothing they could do because they depend on allocation from the Central Bank of Nigeria which has continuously staggered the payment without considering the plight of the affected retirees.

The intervention of responsible and responsive individuals or groups, including Civil Liberty Organisations and every sympathetic minds become necessary to draw the attention of the government to the plight of retired federal civil servants, who are denied the prompt payment of their contributory package and monthly pensions as at when due.

Mudasiru Ayinla Bello,

Ogun State.

Nigerian Tribune