WORRIED by a seeming lukewarmness of government to alleviate the suffering of the nation’s pensioners, the senior citizens yesterday asked the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, for intervention.

About 150 pensioners, representing other pensioners nationwide, gathered at the Sheraton Hotel, Lagos where they pleaded with CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, to intervene and get the authorities to pay their entitlements.

In a statement read on their behalf by the General Secretary of Teachers Pensioners Association of Nigeria, Rev. J. K. Owoyemi, they catalogued a litany of breaches on the part of the Federal Government.

of the federation, saying that the haphazard manner of paying the entitlements had led to the death of many aged senior citizens.

“The efforts of the National Assembly on the plight of pensioners, in recent times is indeed commendable,” the statement jointly signed by the scribe and his chairman, Mr. Isaac Afolabi stated, pleading “it is our unshakable belief that our capable, President Goodluck Jonathan will not relent in making all categories of pensioners smile, by paying all the backlog of pension arrears and implementing the yet to be implemented increases.”

Responding,  Oritsejafor promised t use his connections in the country particularly the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council, NIREC and other individuals that could  be of help, adding that it was unfair to maltreat old people who had made tremendous sacrifices for this country.

Oritsejafor, who told the crowd of pensioners that his own mother was a teacher for several years, condemned the ill-treatment meted to old people, vowing not to let them down especially at this period of Nigeria’s celebration of golden jubilee.

Continuing, Oritsejafor who donated N2,500 to each of the pensioners present at the meeting, told them not to give up hope, saying “this is your country; what is not very good today may be better tomorrow.

There is hope for Nigeria.”
Earlier, the facilitator of the programme and initiator of Macedonia Initiative, Rev. Ladi Thompson lamented the plight of the pensioners, saying “it is a well known fact that the greatness of a nation is often measured by the care it gives to its aged and young generations.”