By Gbenga Olarinoye, Osogbo

Civil servants and retirees in Osun state who were not paid their salaries for several months by the state government recounted what they passed through during this period with Saturday Vanguard. Excerpts:

File Photo: Aged Pensioners waiting for their entitlement

Sola Olojede, 58, is a retired civil servant of the state Teaching service Commission TESCOM. He   retired in 2012. He has five children and a wife. He captured   what his family members went through these past eight months when pensions were not paid.

“For me, my wife and our five children, we have been through hell these last eight months. Our situation became very tense because my wife is also a civil servant.

It got to a point that school fees of our children could not be paid and we had to take undertaken with their school proprietors that their school fees would be paid as soon as salaries are paid.

Luckily enough their school proprietors allowed our children to attend classes and also write their exams. To compound our problems gratuities   were not also paid since our retirement since 2012.

“We, the retirees made several efforts to see governor Aregbesola on these issues, but he did not make himself available. Now that President Buhari has decided to bail the government out I want to appeal to governor Aregbesola not to pay our arrears in piece meal but to pay all at once”.

Mrs Ogundeji Yetunde, is a primary school teacher in one of the public schools in the state. She said she has never experienced the kind of hardship her   family members went through these past months her salary was not paid. “The issue had completely gone out of hand because our children have since stopped going to school and to even eat had become very difficult for us.

Adetoyese Shittu Alamu

Our matter was made worse as my husband also is a retired officer from the state civil service. My parents, who I can also run to for   bail-out, are also affected as the two of them are retired teachers. It got to a point I started selling my valuables at a give away price just for us to survive. All the children were looking up to me as I was also looking up to the government to pay the salary for us to live”.

Gbenga Oyeleke a retired broadcaster with Osun State Broadcasting Corporation OSBC said taking care of five children including some siblings was better imagine. “My wife is on contract job in a private organization whose salary is not enough to take care of the family. We are very privileged to have some relatives who came to our aid by sending us some money to feed.

This assistance was not enough to pay school fees of our children and we had to appeal to their school teachers. There was one sad experience we went through six months after my retirement. I came back home one day and discovered that there was no food stuff again at home and I advised my wife that the leftover should be cooked for our little boy. The food was so tasteless that even me as a father could not   eat it.

We are lucky that we are still alive today and healthy. I thank God that I have a medical doctor   friend who also assisted us. Am owning my bank today as I have taken overdrafts, I can not go back until at least five months arrears is paid.

Adetoyese Shittu Alamu, retired as a director in the state broadcasting corporation. He relieved his experiences to Saturday Vanguard. “It is God’s grace that made us survive. It is clear now that it is not advisable for one to solely rely on salary or pension for survival. Ordinarily, pension is supposes to be for me and my wife but today, that is not the case as I still have children who are still going to school.

Some people used to ask me why I did not join the protest and I answered them that as a retired director, my position did not allow me to participate in any civil unrest. Over the years, I have come to realise that I needed to face the challenges of life as they come. Sometimes, as the head of the family, there are some days that I don’t have up to N1000 in pocket.

There is nothing I cannot do to survive except stealing. During this period, I engaged myself in some productive services like writing. Over the years I used to engage the services of a labourer to clean my compound but as the situation is today, I do it myself even at my old age. “But between May and June this year whoever told you that it was not rough was only being economical with the truth. But we have survive and overcome it.

I think the government should be scared to take the blame because it started a good plan that went sour. There is also the need for government and workers to play sacrificial heroism. What I mean by this is that government should apologise to the workers for making them go through this kind of situation for so long and workers themselves also should agree that what happen was not intentional.”