By EMMA UNA

Pensioners in the country have continued to lament unpaid pensions in what they described as the Federal Government share of their Pension.

In the words of Mr. Alphonsus Ojiho, who retired from the Cross River State Ministry of Health in 2004, since 2009, pensioners have not received a kobo from the federal government as its share of the pension.

This, Mr. Ajiho, said has inflicted untold hardships for the pensioners.

Excerpts

I retired from the Cross River State Ministry of Health in 2004 and I have been getting my state share of pension but since 2009, I have not been paid my federal share of pension.

What do you mean by federal share of pension?

You know, in those days before the new pension regime, the pension scheme then was handled by both the state and federal government such that when you retire, the payment was handled by both the federal government and the state government.

So what I am saying, is that the state has been paying me the deductions made from my salary as pension savings while the deductions made by the federal government are not being paid me.

Are you the only one going though this non-payment by the Federal Pension Board?

Many of us have similar experience .

Has the Federal Government advanced any reasons for stopping the payment?

Sometime in 2009, they asked us to go to Agriculture Bank through which we were receiving our payments for screening and after the screening, we were asked to open accounts with a commercial bank and we went to Union Bank and opened the accounts. But, since then no payments have been released to us through Union Bank and nobody has told us anything.

 So, what has the government or Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, said about the non-payment of the pensioners their federal share of pension?

The government has not said anything , our union is also not doing anything apart from collecting the monthly dues which is deducted right at source at the pension’s office.

Even with the small sum of  money we are paid by the state government, the union still deducts the dues  regularly from our payments and we have complained that the deduction should be yearly or quarterly but they still insist in collecting the dues every month.

How much does the union collect monthly from the payment?

We are not told how much, because the money is regularly increased. I have been retired for about 10 years now and in those early days, the union was deducting N200.00 but the money has increased now to about N2000.00 a month. They collect the money right from the State Treasury before the remaining sum is sent to us through the bank.

Is the money paid you by the state government enough to sustain you?

Not really. How can N15, 000 sustain a man who still has children in the University and in secondary school and has to buy food and other items tom keep life going?

Apart from pension, what else have you done since you retired from the ministry of health?

I am not doing anything apart from occasionally going to the farm otherwise, I do not do anything.

When last did you receive the State share of pension?

I have been paid the September and as you know the month of October has not ended but once it ends and salaries are paid, our pension is also paid to us.