BY AUSTIN UGANWA
Imo State Governor, Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha last Friday restored the
self-worth and optimism of the largely distressed Imo retirees. At a
stakeholders meeting he organized at Concorde Hotel in Owerri to
interface with the senior citizens, he put to an end the anxieties
surrounding the 5-year non-payment of pensions. He told the perplexed
pensioners drawn from the Nigerian Union of pensioners, (NUP) and
organized labour that the government would commence the payment of
pensioners from this week specifically, Thursday.
The governor captured the assurance graphically and sequentially: “The
verification exercise embarked by the government to ascertain the actual
number and amount to be paid to the pensioners has been completed. The
consultants handling the exercise have told me that integration of the
collated data with the banks will be done between Monday and Tuesday,
while the report will be presented to, and ratified, at the State
Executive Council Meeting on Wednesday thereafter the alert will start
hitting your phones”.
Naturally, Sam Mbakwe Hall, Concord Hotel, venue of the meeting was
electrified over Ihedioha’s assurance. The pensioners consequently
gave the governor an inspiring but sustained loud ovation. Euphoria and
cheers palpably rent the air. And became more manifest when Ihedioha
announced that he had set aside over N822 million representing 17
percent of the state’s federation allocation, based on the computed
figures, for the payment of the pension arrears.
Ihedioha had during his campaign period and inaugural speech, May 29,
this year assured Imo people of making pension reforms one of the focal
points of his administration. He had noted of guaranteeing the
restoration of the dignity of the retirees as one of the priority
options of the new government. The intensification of the pension
revamp is instructive of Ihedioha’s steadfastness towards
accomplishing his campaign promises
Not a few Imolites perceive the commencement of regular payment of
pensioners as cutting-edge and momentous. The reasons are not
far-fetched. Records are evident and verifiable that the last time the
pensioners in the state were paid was in 2014, five clear years ago. At
that time they were paid far below their pension entitlement and were
made to queue for days to obtain their cheques. Pathetically, some of
the cheques even failed to clear. It is also on record that there has
been an upswing in the number of deceased pensioners in the state in the
past five years resulting from their inability to take care of their
fragile health due to non-payment of pension by the past
administration headed by Owelle Rochas Okorocha
However, even in the face of the meritorious manner many of the senior
citizens served the state, it is most disconcerting that the past
administration dishonoured them, impacting on the deflation of their
self-esteem. This veracity intrinsically forced them to wallow
unfortunately and manifestly for years, in pains, despair and
hopelessness. These evidence-based realties informed the jubilation and
acclamation that greeted Ihedioha’s announcement of commencing the
payment of pensions, after five years . The regular payment of the
pension will not only enhance the pensioners’ livelihoods, it will
most importantly restore their confidence and pride.
Ihedioha’s pursuit of pension revamp in Imo was methodical. First, he
set up a 6-man committee headed by Evans Uzokwe to investigate the
5-year pension arrears owed to retirees in the state by the past
administration and to provide a framework on the best approach to be
adopted by the current administration to grapple with the pensions
conundrums
Thereafter, a team of consultants was engaged by government to work
jointly with the committee headed by Mr. Pascal Madu, the Chief
Technical Adviser to the governor with a mandate to undertake
verification and biometric capturing of the pensioners. This became
imperative because of lack of reliable and computerized data on
pensioners in the state.
Ihedioha further explained the urgent need for the verification
exercise and biometric capturing. Apparently peeved by the agony the
pensioners have been passing through on account of non-payment of
pensioners entitlement he stated that the essence of the biometric
capturing is to reform, standardize and sanitize the pension
administration in the state such that data on the pensioners would be
accurate and reliable and the record efficient enough to render another
verification exercise in the state needless
For enhanced results, the exercise was conducted in two phases to cover
the state and local councils pensioners. Apart from ensuring that Imo
youths were hired for the exercise as an avenue of empowering them, the
governor mandated the committee to take the verification exercise to the
local government headquarters and down to the wards towards making it
convenient for the senior citizens to access the exercise. This was a
major departure from the past when the pensioners would be made to
travel to the state capital Owerri for the exercise
Consistent with the government’s policy of restoring the dignity of
the retirees, the pensioners’ welfare was fascinatingly accorded top
priority during the duration of the verification exercise. Meals were
provided for them while proper medical care and facilities such as wheel
chair were readily made available to the pensioners that needed them
The exercise typically hatched profound results. Apart from yielding
credible and reliable data on pensioners in the state, Pascal Madu,
head of the committee that undertook the exercise submitted that it
unlocked lots of fraudulent records in the system. According to him, the
exercise uncovered well over 7000 ghost pensioners bringing down the
total number of recorded pensioners from 25,000 to 18,000. The
implication is a sharp drop in the amount used monthly to defray pension
in the state. It accordingly tumbled from N1.3b to N 822m, resulting in
government gaining over N400m monthly.
DR. UGANWA, SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO IMO GOVERNMENT ON DOCUMENTATION,
WROTE FROM OWERRI