Say nobody wants to lend them money, seek govt, others’ help

By Demola Akinyemi

In a country where the N30, 000 minimum wage does not take care of the monthly expenses the average worker in Nigeria, it is absurd that some pensioners receive N2,000;  N3,000, N3,500, N4,000 and N7,000 monthly.

But this is the tale of a large percentage of pensioners in Kwara State, who mainly retired on levels one and eight. They are still being paid between N2,000  and N7,000 as monthly salary from the government.

Many of them were said to have died over lack of funds to meet their basic needs especially medicare, while those still fortunate to be alive had depended on the goodwill of the management of some Micro finance banks in Ilorin, until the banks ran out of patience over the inability of the retirees to pay back the loans.

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According to sources, the Microfinance banks were not particularly interested in making profits from the paltry loans to pensioners, but used to lend the pensioners as much as N5,000 monthly and recover the loans in a way only the banks understood.

Speaking for the affected pensioners, Chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, in Kwara State, Saidu Oladimeji, said the pensioners were practically living like destitute, saying: “We were living on loans and borrowings when we were using Micro Finance banks, but not anymore. Pensioners in the category who earn N2, 500, N3, 500, N4,000 monthly, were able to survive because the managers of those banks (Micro-finance banks) out of divine sympathy, decided to assist them not because of profit.

“They had a particular amount they used to lend them and they knew how to deduct it when their pension was paid. How they did it, I don’t know. They lent them monthly because they could die anytime. We are facing serious problems my dear brother.”

He recalled that he was denied loan when he approached a commercial bank, (name withheld) he had been operating before his retirement.

Oladimeji said: “I retired in 2007 and I went to the bank at Unity in Ilorin with the intention of getting a loan to possibly start small business.

I have been using the bank since 1991. While at the Customer Care, they said among themselves in Yoruba language that they won’t give me  loan because I would soon die being a pensioner. I angrily cursed them that it is their fathers that would soon die and argument ensued before I angrily left the bank.

“I did not look like a Yoruba man so they believed I would not understand.

Their manager, who was passing by, heard the conversations after I had left and suspended them.

They later traced me and apologised to me before they were reinstated.”

He recalled how the immediate past governor detained him in his office for about four hours over the statement NUP released concerning poor implementation of retirees’ pension, lamenting that the last administration in the state inflicted pains on the pensioners through distorted pay.

“I will say the bitter truth to reduce the suffering of my people, as long as I remain the chairman.

We have been on the problem of increasing retirees’ pension since April 2015. We know that the state government cannot give us N30,000 minimum wage because the Federal Government did not pay its pensioners N30, 000.

But we are looking forward to an assistance to improve the amount.

My own condition is better because I retired as a senior officer and my children are taking good care of me, that’s why you are seeing me like this,” the NUP chairman said.

According to him, several efforts to get the attention of the present administration over their plight had not yielded positive result, even though the government had been prompt in the payment of their pensions.

He said: “Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq does not owe us unlike the last two administrations that paid us distorted pensions.

It is common knowledge that we get paid on the 25th at worst, the last day of every month, we get our pensions.

“It is only Kaduna State out of the 36 states that is paying N30, 000 minimum wage to pensioners.

Some people may not like him but we pensioners love him, to the extent that we gave him award.

Even the oil-rich states owe pensioners well over 20 months salaries.

You can see the wickedness of these political leaders.”

One of the pensioners, Alhaja Abibat Anafi who retired from Kwara State Ministry of Commerce in 2007 and is on N4, 350 monthly pension, “I thank Almighty Allah that I am lucky to be alive today because of the support I get from my family. My colleagues, who were not as lucky, have passed on to the great beyond because the care was not there. My children are taking care of me, and my extended relatives too; not everyone of us is privileged like I told you.

“I hope you journalists would be able to sensitise the government and other stakeholders to take care of the pensioners, who suffered for the country, to live better after retirement as done in advanced countries.”

Speaking, Senior Special Adviser on Labour to Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazak,
AbdulKareem Mumini Onagun, who said the present administration inherited a fragmented salary scale of pensioners, said it was regularised and improved upon to reflect what it is today.

Unlike the past administration, he said the pension payments had been regular, and as soon as the opportunity avails, “we will look for means to make the amount better than what it is.”

Onagun also described Governor AbdulRazaq as the best workers’ friendly governor in the state over the implementation of N30,000 minimum wage and workers’ promotion.

Vanguard News Nigeria