Abia pensioners bemoan agreement signing off their gratuity

…Say we are devastated by shock, trauma

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

Abia pensioners are bemoaning that the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between the State Government and leadership of the state chapter of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) on which the state relied on to pay off the nine years arrears owed the pensioners has brought the senior citizens gloom rather than happiness.

Refering to the agreement, part of which provided that the Pensioners waived away their gratuity, in preference to being paid their pensions in full every month, the pensioners declared that they never mandated any one to sign away their gratuity.

Recall that shortly after being paid the arrears owed them, the Abia NUP Executive, on April 4, 2024, did a memo to Governor Alex Otti, requesting him to revisit the Article VI (C) of the MoA where NUP was alleged to have signed off the gratuity of her members.

On May 3, 2024, the NUP, in a communiqué at the end of their enlarged State Council meeting, did not only add their voice to the call by their executive for review of that offensive provision, but insisted that it must be expunged.

Part of the communiqué by the enlarged State Council meeting, signed by its Chairman, Chukwuemeka Irondi and State Secretary, Uma Kalu, read: “

“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 to once and for all.”

Governor Otti, while responding to NUP’s demand, on May 9, 2024, during his monthly Media Chat, described it as a huge joke.

“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,” the Governor said, explaing that government has taken action based on that MoA.

But the Forum of Abia Pensioners, a group of concerned senior citizens, would not let the matter to go away.

On May 16, 2024, they authored a three-page letter addressed to the Governor and signed by their Co-ordinator, Barr. Okey Kanu and the Secretary, Mr. Emma Onyenyiri.

In the letter, the passionately appealed to the Governor to revisit the matter, as their gratuity could not be written off as a bad debt.

The Forum said the declaration by the Governor that government has made full and final payment of the arrears based on the agreement with NUP, has left the retirees devasted as they have continued to mourn after listening to the Governor. They said the news has caused deterioration of their health conditions.

Part of the letter reads:

“We recall that during your campaigns, you consistenly made payment of arrears of pension and gratuity your central points which you promised to clear on or before 31st December, 2023. “However, on assumption of office, you realised that the amount needed to offset them exceeded your projection.

“Nevertheless, you sssured Pensioners that if need be, you shall approach the House of Assembly for approval of additional funds for the purpose; hence, you promised that before the end of the first quarter of 2024, payment for arrears would have been accomplished.

“Pursuant to this promise, in March 2024, Pensioners started receiving alerts in this regard.

“We are therefore immensely grateful to Your Excellency for fulfilling this promise.

“Also worthy of commendation is your administration’s commencement of payment of full monthly pension, commencing from April, 2024.

“However, Your Excellency, what most, if not all of us, received as arrears of our pension fell too short of our expectations, realising that the arrears started as far back as 2014.

“For instance, between 2018 and 2019, Pensioners were not paid more than twice by the immediate past administration.

“Thus the arrears of those two years alone is far more than what most of us received as the entire payment of the  arrears.

“What is more disturbing is the information that the entire arrears have been settled sequel to an Agreement or Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Government and officers of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Abia State Chapter.

“As we were bemoaning this development, the additional information was that our outstanding gratuity was written off via the same MoU.

“Your Excellency, to tell you that we are devastated and mourning is an understatement.

“Without gainsaying it, this development has adversely affected the health situation of most, if not all, of us.

“In the first place, pension and gratuity are statutory and personal to each pensioner; hence the said officials of NUP had no right or competence to waive them on our behalf.

“They never discussed same with us and did not receive our mandate, approval or consent. They were indeed on a frolic of their own.

“We recall that during their meetings with Government, this Forum consistently requested the said officials of NUP, to carry along the pensiomers via information dissemination.

“Most unfortunately, they operated like a mafia group and consistently and deliberately hid information from those they purportedly represented.

“Your Excellency, we are aware of the enormity of problems you inherited from past administrations of the state, including pension and gratuity. “Therefore, if you had decided to defray them instalmentally because of the constraints of funds, pensioners would have still held you in high esteem

“Even if you didn’t finish the payment within your eight  years tenure (as we are confident your second term is assured based on your stellar performance), pensioners would have still loved you as they understand that these arrears were not accummulated by your administration, but that you came on a rescue mission because of your kind heart.

“But to tell pensioners that these arrears are no longer existent sequel to the said Agreement or MoU is highly devastating.

“One of the negative implications will be that your administration has deliberately decided to carry on its shoulders, the blame of the previous administrations on the issue thereby invariably diverting attention from them as the incurers of these debts. Indeed, the opposition parties are now using this development as a political weapon against your administration.

“Further, payment of pension and gratuity are the only consolation to the civil and public servants for their meagre salaries and allowances for 35 years of Service.

“Gratuity, among other reasons,  is meant to enable them to start a new life after leaving the Service.

“Your Excellency can therefore imagine the shock and trauma pensioners are going through when these information came in.

“While we are aware that some pensioners have received their gratuity, this pronouncement conduces to an unfair treatment to those who have not received theirs and for no fault of theirs.

“In addition, it is a red flag for serving officers whose morale and dedication to duty will be grossly eroded as they no longer have anything to look up to or rely on after retirement.

“It is on the above premises that we passionately appeal to His Excellency to revisit and reconsider the said Agreement or MoU.

“It is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength, understanding, empathy and godliness. We are on our knees pleading with you.

“However, realising the enormity of governance challenges facing your administration,  coupled with paucity of funds, we are willing and ready to accept payments of these entitlements in instalments no matter how long it takes to defray them.

“Even if you decide to spread the payments throughout your eight years  tenure of office, we shall gladly accept same without diminishing our high regards for your administration.

“Even if your administration decides not to make any further payment on the arrears,  we shall still  appreciate the one your administration had already paid to us while the balance remains as debt  for future administrations.

“We therefore passionately plead that these arrears shall not, for any reason, be written of as if they are bad debts.

“Your Excellency, you have made huge positive difference  in the governamce of our state.

“You have equally made huge difference in the lives of pensioners in the state.

“We assure you of our continued support yo your administration. We do not want to go back to Egypt or the locust years for any reason whatsoever.

“Thanks to Your Excellency for listening to our supplications, hearkening to our cry, revisiting and reconsidering the said issues of our arrears of pensions and gratuity.

“We have every confidence that you will do so, especially based on your recent pronouncement of revisiting every anti-people policy. Your Excellency, our present issues are instant ones!”