BY AUSTIN UGANWA<\/p>\n
Imo State Governor, Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha last Friday restored the
\nself-worth and optimism of the largely\u00a0 distressed Imo retirees. At a
\nstakeholders meeting he organized at Concorde Hotel in Owerri to
\ninterface with the senior citizens, he put to an end the anxieties
\nsurrounding the 5-year non-payment of pensions. He told the perplexed
\npensioners drawn from the Nigerian Union of pensioners, (NUP) and
\norganized labour that the government would commence the payment of
\npensioners from this week specifically, Thursday.<\/p>\n
The governor captured the assurance graphically and sequentially: \u201cThe
\nverification exercise embarked by the government to ascertain the actual
\nnumber and amount to be paid to the pensioners has been completed.\u00a0 \u00a0The
\nconsultants handling the exercise have told me that integration of the
\ncollated data with the banks will be done between Monday and Tuesday,
\nwhile the report will be presented to, and ratified, at the State
\nExecutive Council Meeting on Wednesday thereafter the alert will start
\nhitting your phones\u201d.<\/p>\n
Naturally, Sam Mbakwe Hall, Concord Hotel, venue of the meeting was
\nelectrified over Ihedioha\u2019s assurance. The pensioners consequently
\ngave the governor an inspiring but sustained loud ovation. Euphoria and
\ncheers palpably rent the air.\u00a0 And became more manifest when Ihedioha
\nannounced\u00a0 that he had set aside over N822 million representing 17
\npercent of the state\u2019s federation allocation, based on the computed
\nfigures, for the payment of the pension arrears.<\/p>\n
Ihedioha had during his campaign period and inaugural speech, May 29,
\nthis year assured Imo people of making pension reforms one of the focal
\npoints\u00a0 of his administration. He had noted of guaranteeing the
\nrestoration of the dignity of the retirees as one of the priority
\noptions\u00a0 of the new government. The intensification of the pension
\nrevamp is instructive of Ihedioha\u2019s steadfastness towards
\naccomplishing his campaign promises<\/p>\n
Not a few Imolites\u00a0 perceive the commencement of regular payment of
\npensioners\u00a0 as\u00a0 cutting-edge and momentous. The reasons are not
\nfar-fetched. Records are evident and verifiable\u00a0 that the last time the
\npensioners in the state were paid was in 2014, five clear years ago. At
\nthat time they were paid far below their pension entitlement and were
\nmade to queue for days to obtain their cheques. Pathetically, some of
\nthe cheques even failed to clear.\u00a0 It is also on record that there has
\nbeen an upswing in the number of deceased pensioners in the state in the
\npast five years\u00a0 resulting from their inability to take care of their
\nfragile health due to\u00a0 non-payment of\u00a0 pension\u00a0 by the past
\nadministration headed by Owelle Rochas Okorocha<\/p>\n
However, even in the face of the meritorious manner many of the senior
\ncitizens served the state,\u00a0 \u00a0it is most disconcerting that\u00a0 the past
\nadministration dishonoured them, impacting on the deflation of\u00a0 \u00a0their
\nself-esteem. This veracity intrinsically\u00a0 forced them to wallow
\nunfortunately and\u00a0 manifestly for years,\u00a0 in pains, despair and
\nhopelessness. These evidence-based realties informed the jubilation and
\nacclamation that greeted Ihedioha\u2019s announcement of commencing the
\npayment of pensions, after five years . The regular payment of the
\npension will not only enhance the pensioners\u2019 livelihoods, it will
\nmost importantly restore their confidence and pride.<\/p>\n
Ihedioha\u2019s pursuit of pension revamp in Imo was methodical. First, he
\nset up a 6-man committee headed by Evans Uzokwe\u00a0 to investigate the
\n5-year pension arrears owed to retirees in the state by the past
\nadministration and to provide a framework on\u00a0 the best approach to be
\nadopted by the current administration to grapple with the pensions
\nconundrums<\/p>\n
Thereafter, a team of consultants was engaged by government to work
\njointly with\u00a0 the committee headed by Mr. Pascal Madu, the Chief
\nTechnical Adviser to the governor with a mandate to undertake
\nverification and biometric capturing of the pensioners. This became
\nimperative because of lack of reliable and computerized data on
\npensioners in the state.<\/p>\n
Ihedioha further explained the urgent need for the verification
\nexercise and biometric capturing. Apparently peeved by the agony the
\npensioners have been passing through on account of non-payment of
\npensioners entitlement he\u00a0 stated that the essence of the biometric
\ncapturing is to reform, standardize and sanitize the pension
\nadministration in the state such that\u00a0 data on the pensioners would be
\naccurate and reliable and\u00a0 the record efficient enough to render another
\nverification exercise in the state\u00a0 needless<\/p>\n
For enhanced results, the exercise was conducted in two phases to cover
\nthe state and local councils pensioners. Apart from ensuring that Imo
\nyouths were hired for the exercise as an avenue of empowering them, the
\ngovernor mandated the committee to take the verification exercise to the
\nlocal government headquarters and down to the wards towards making it
\nconvenient for the senior citizens to access the exercise. This was a
\nmajor departure from the past when the pensioners would be made to
\ntravel to the state capital Owerri for the exercise<\/p>\n
Consistent with the government\u2019s policy of restoring the dignity of
\nthe retirees, the pensioners\u2019 welfare was fascinatingly accorded top
\npriority during the duration of the verification exercise. Meals were
\nprovided for them while proper medical care and facilities such as wheel
\nchair were readily made available to the pensioners that needed them<\/p>\n
The exercise typically hatched profound results. Apart from yielding
\ncredible and reliable data\u00a0 on\u00a0 pensioners in the state,\u00a0 Pascal Madu,
\nhead of the committee that undertook the exercise submitted that it
\nunlocked lots of fraudulent records in the system. According to him, the
\nexercise uncovered well over 7000 ghost pensioners bringing down the
\ntotal number of recorded pensioners from 25,000 to 18,000. The
\nimplication is a sharp drop in the amount used monthly to defray pension
\nin the state. It accordingly tumbled from N1.3b to N 822m, resulting in
\ngovernment gaining over N400m monthly.<\/p>\n
DR. UGANWA, SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO IMO GOVERNMENT ON DOCUMENTATION,
\nWROTE FROM OWERRI<\/p>\n
BY AUSTIN UGANWA Imo State Governor, Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha last Friday restored the self-worth and optimism of the largely\u00a0 distressed Imo retirees. At a stakeholders meeting he organized at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n