PRESS RELEASE 29TH JUNE, 2008
CLEAR PENSION ARREARS NOW, DPA TELLS LAGOS GOVERNMENT
DPA has asked the Lagos State Government to heed the cry of its pensioners
and alleviate their sufferings by immediately paying their entitlements
estimated in excess of N10 billion.
The party deplored the frustration that rested civil servants, some of
whom had put in over 30 years of meritorious service, faced in trying to
get the government to pay the arrears of their benefits and monthly
pensions. It described the situation as a violation of the social contract
the government had with this class of citizens.
“Lagos can afford to pay and pay today,” the party said in a statement
by its Director of Publicity, Felix Oboagwina. “With monthly
internally-generated revenue of at least N10 billion, the entire backlog
of unpaid pensions can be liquidated in one or two months.”
Urging the government to resurrect the spirit of welfarism that had always
distinguished Lagos, DPA urged the state to treat with serious urgency the
matter of offsetting the backlog of pensioners’ pay.
“Not paying these moneys places the state and the government in bad
light, and presents them to the world as irresponsible, callous and
unpredictable. This is because the undue impoverishing of these senior
citizens has resulted in deaths, sickness and deprivations, not only for
themselves, but for their dependants and families,” DPA said.
According to the party, the unpredictable nature of pensions’ payment
could fuel corruption in the civil service, workers resorting to avarice
to feather their nests in preparation for post-service life and old age.
“If we must commit to fighting corruption concertedly, then the state
must establish necessary infrastructure that will reassure workers that
honesty, hard-work and expectation reposed in the government will
unequivocally yield the expected dividends,” DPA said.
Some of the backlog dates back over 10 years, and include across-board
pension increments totaling about 180 percent. The administration of
Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu single-handedly sacked 15,000 from the
state’s workforce.
The party bemoaned the fact that no sector of the state civil service was
spared the agony of unpaid pensions, including the Local Government
Service Commission, Teaching Service Commission and State Civil Service
Commission.
According to the party, the state should look beyond merely clearing the
accumulated retirees’ salaries and in fact initiate moves to increase
pensions to reflect widespread inflation and the devalued Naira.
“There is a certain quality of cold callousness when you maltreat the
weak, the old and children,” DPA said. “And the Action Congress
government in Lagos State is demonstrating that level of callousness on
this issue.”
The party urged the relevant workers’ unions in the state to pick up the
gauntlet and spare no effort towards advancing the cause of their retired
colleagues.
In the words of the party, “Workers in service must remember the Yoruba
adage that, ‘The broom the husband used to punish the old wife he has
kept in store for her younger counterpart;’ meaning that, ‘what goes
round comes round’.”
FELIX OBOAGWINA
Director of Publicity, Lagos DPA
08033327355.