Akwa Ibom pensioners urge Gov Eno to establish pension board

Members of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Akwa Ibom State Council, have cried to Governor Umo Eno over the economic hardship they face amid their meagre pension.

They said they no longer cope with the amount of N1500 to N5000 some of them receive as pensions in the present economic realities.

Addressing journalists in Uyo on Wednesday, the NUP chairman, Obong Ekpenyong Ekpo and secretary, Obong Cosmos Essien, lamented that their members are finding it difficult to survive and buy their drugs and called for harmonisation of their pensions as other state governments in the Niger Delta have started doing so for their pensioners.

The secretary who spoke on behalf of members said the state government reneged on its promise to pay a minimum pension of N20,000 to those who retired before 1997 and N30,000 for those afterwards.

He also noted that the state government has failed to implement the provisions of Section 173 (3) (2) (10) of the 1999 Constitution, which stated explicitly that pensions shall be reviewed every five years along with whatever increase is given to workers.

Essien also called on the governor to establish a pension commission or board where they can channel their prayers and have someone speak for them.

According to him: “We have been praying, crying and reaching out to those in government to help, but there has been no sign of change; our members are dying daily because they cannot afford drugs; over 65 per cent of pensioners are hypertensive and diabetic; survival in Nigeria presently is very expensive; and our members are no longer coping. We brought our plight to government and they snubbed us.

“Can you imagine that in present-day Nigeria, many of our members are still collecting N2000 a month, some N1000 a month and their current situation is very pathetic, some don’t have children to care for them, a few privileged have, while those who have children late are still training them in school.”

The union threatened to embark on a mass demonstration across the streets of Uyo and wrap it up with the blockage of the Government House gate to press home their demands and let the world know their plights, even as they expressed gratitude to the governor for paying about N14 billion in gratuities, which cut across civil pensioners, local government pensioners, primary school pensioners and next-of-kin within nine months in office.

“We have had cases of past governors announcing publicly that they are not owing any pension and I can tell you that 80 per cent of pensioners who are tenants have had their property thrown out by their landlords after receiving such news on the ground that they are liars,” the secretary observed.