Abia Govt., pensioners disagree over agreement for clearance of pension arrears

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

Close to two months after Abia State government said it has cleared all pension arrears owed pensioners in the state based on a Momerandum of Agreement (MoA) it reached with the leadership of the state chapter of Nigieria Union of Pensioners (NUP), the pensioners are insisting that a portion of the agreement must be expunged.

The offending section  of the MoA which the leadership of Abia NUP is believed to have endorsed allegedly without the consent of their members provides that pensioners would have to forfeit their gratuities in preference to paying them their full pensions every month.

Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti,  has described the demand by the pensioners as a huge joke.

Otti who stated the position of government on the issue during the May 2024 edition of his monthly Media Chat, said it amounted to bad faith that after receiving their pay, the pensioners would turn round to reject the agreement it had signed with government.

Recall that on March 28, 2024,  the Otti-led administration started clearing the nine years of pension arrears owed Abia pensioners. After the payment, government said it has made “full and final payment of the arrears owed pensioners in the state.”

And in line with the MoA, government commenced paying the pensioners 100 percent of their pensions from April 2024.

Government officials said the payment of the pension arrears was based on the agreement signed with NUP.

With time, shouts of discontent started renting the air in several quarters, alleging that government  shortchanged the Senior Citizens.

Complainants maintained that government did not clear the arrears but rather paid a fraction of the pensions as the agreement was allegedly based on percentage.

The opposition claimed that government prevailed on the NUP leadetship to sign away a huge chunk of the pensioners’ entitlements.

As if to give credence to these claims, an enlarged State Council meeting of Abia NUP raised a communiqué in which it asked government to expunge Section VI (c) of the MOA its Executive signed on behalf of Abia pensioners  because it was beyond their (Exco’s) brief.

 Rising from its enlarged State Council meeting in Umuahia on May 3, 2024, NUP issued a Communiqué signed by its Chairman, Chukwuemeka Irondi and State Secretary, Uma Kalu, which read in part: 

“On the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Abia State Government and Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Abia State, this Enlarged State Council blames the State Exco of the Union for signing the said MOA on TRUST without reading it carefully, no matter the pressure on them and the Urgency attached to it by the government team.

“However, the Council upholds the stand of the State Exco in paragraph 3 of its letter to the Executive Governor of Abia State on 4th April, 2024, that Paragraph VI (c) of the MOA which reads: ” Consequently, the Members of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners in its duly convened meeting of 11th January, 2024, resolved to waive its outstanding entitlements and gratuities should be expunged” because neither this Council nor the State Exco of the Union has the capacity to waive or forgo the gratuities of retirees because Severance Gratuity is consolidated money sum to which the retiree is entitled once and for all.”

But Otti, while responding to the position of NUP, during the Thursday night media parley, said it was in bad faith because action has been taken based on the MoA. 

Using the opportunity to tell government’s side of the bargain, the Governor said:

“On the issue of pension arrears, we were thinking, based on the information available to us, that the arrears dated back to 2017 or 2018. But by the time we started engaging, we found that we had five months pension arrears for 2014, about eight or nine months arrears for 2015, and it graduated all the way to 2023.

“So we started engaging with the pensioners till we got to a point where the NUP in the state told us that what they were interested in was the payment of their full pensions from January 2024 and they also said they were ready to waive all the arrears, once there was a commitment to pay them promptly and pay 100 percent of the pensions.

“So, when we went back, we thought it was not a fair deal. We thought that the pensioners, inspite of the difficulties they were under, that we were not going to have them write off all their pension arrears. So, we looked at our books and we put down N10 billion to defray the total arrears.

“We sat down, walked back and had an agreement which every party signed. So I’m not aware of this meeting that you are talking about. But I am aware that after we paid out that money, that the leadership of the NUP had come to say,  ooh, that they made a mistake, they didn’t think that gratuity should be waived. “But, of course, you have signed a document and on the basis of that document, action has been taken and full pension payment has resumed. That is my story,” the Governor said.

Continuing, Otti said: “As far as I am concerned, I have a document they have signed. I am not too sure that it does not amount to bad faith after signing a document and receiving your money and you want to walk back on agreement that has been signed.

“But we, as government, will live by everything that we agreed and signed.

Some people can go back and …. I believe that somebody must be fuelling that; you know, if you have been following all the reports from the so-called opposition who couldn’t pay these pension arrears when they were in government.

“The pensioners themselves are happy. Some of them have gone to Church for Thanksgiving.

“If the leadership who signed the document comes to say they didn’t sign or want a particular section expunged, I think it is a huge joke because you can’t sign a document and say you didn’t sign or that a portion of the document should be expunged after you signed and the other party has changed position.

“Gratuity is a one-time thing. You weren’t getting anything before, so I am sure if they engage their members and debate on this, they won’t like it. We have shown good faith, we were not the ones that incurred the debt. We could have done like others, ignore them and continue. 

“But they are our people, and we believe that we should, at least, make life easier for them.”