The Southwest Zone of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners ,NUP has decried the backlog of pensions and gratuity by governors of the zone, saying most state governors had no regard for pensioners.
The Pensioners who stated this in Lagos State, at NUP’s zonal meeting, accused the governor’s of being insensitive to the plights of pensioners.
In his address, Chairman, Southwest Zone of NUP, Waheed Oloyede, appealed to state governors to pay pensioners regularly .
He also called for the need for governors to increase pensions in their various states, nothing that some pensioners were still receiving as low as N5,000, monthly.
He said: “Nigerian constitution provides increase in pension every five years and whenever salaries of workers are increased, that of pensioners should also increase. We have discovered that only the federal government is fulfilling the promise, but the states are not.
“The consequential increase in pension that was approved by the federal government in 2019 was not implemented in many states.
“We are using the opportunity of this meeting to appeal to all the governors that have not implemented the increase to do so without any further delay.”
“Pensioners are dying almost every week. Many of us use the little money we are paid to buy medicines and when the money is not forth coming, we cannot get them and that means we cannot live long.
“This is why we are pleading to government to listen to the plights of pensioners and ensure we are paid what we should be paid as at when due. The problem of pensioners are almost the same in all the states of the federation and most of the state governors have no regard for pensioners,” he said.
On his part, the zone’s Public Relations Officer, Comrade Olusegun Abatan, lamented that there had not been substantial development from the zone’s last report on how the state governments had been addressing the plight of pensioners.
He noted that out of the south west states, only Ogun state government had set up a committee to address the consequential adjustment on pension, adding that it had set up committee to address the issues of pensioners under the contributory pension scheme.
He said: ” We want to use this opportunity to encourage and plead with other state governors in the south west to take into consideration and act promptly on the consequential adjustment of pensions.”
To this end, he called on the Southwest state governors to declare a state of emergency on pension in their respective states, urging the Nigeria Labour Congress , NLC and the Trade Union Congress ,TUC across the south west states to support pensioners in their states as well.
Also in his remark, Vice Chairman, NUP, Lagos State Council, Comrade Aderemi Titus, charged political leaders to have a heart to serve the people, reminding them that ” every one will reap the fruits of his deeds”.
He also urged them to love the masses,saying, _ do not neglect them, ensure you deliver the right leadership
