Varsity pensioners to FG: We’re facing hard times

Education Minister, Ibrahim Shekarau and Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

The 53 per cent increase promised pensioners six years ago has yet to come their way, CHARLES ABAH reports of university retirees

The once ebullient National President, Federal Universities Pensioners Association, Dr. Ayuba Kura, does not seem to be a cheerful person any longer. Bitterness, resentment and frustration all seem to have conspired and taken a better part of him.

The FUPA helmsman is also not happy with the leadership of the nation. He is particularly angry with President Goodluck Jonathan on the way his administration is handling the plight of pensioners, especially university retirees.

The anger in his voice shows this as much. The President, he says, has not shown a deep interest in their dilemma. Considering that the university system is the President’s first constituency, Kura, as well as many of his colleagues, says he expects a more “transformation impact” on the sub-sector.

Before venturing into politics, Jonathan was a university teacher.

According to Kura, the Jonathan administration’s refusal to pay university pensioners their pension increase approved six years ago is the height of insensitivity.

Accusing the Federal Government of neglecting the retirees, Kura, notes that a section of pensioners, such as those from the military, have since benefited from the package.

He adds, “The entire members of FUPA and other pensioners in Nigeria have been waiting anxiously to see that the Federal Government honours its promise concerning the 53 per cent pension increase awarded to pensioners since 2009.

“Pensioners are disappointed with the manner the government is handling pension issues in Nigeria. This shows that the present administration has no respect for the elderly.”

A retired professor of International Relations from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Kayode Soremekun, is also not pleased with the conditions university retirees are facing.

Individuals who have served the nation meritoriously, he says, are today facing marginalisation as if it were an offence to serve one’s fatherland.

Soremekun, who brings in a political dimension to the issue, urges President Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party leadership to urgently address the matter. He warns that the many university retirees as well as their family members may decide to vote against the party in the 2015 polls.

Similarly, Kura does not mince words about making their plight a political issue in the forthcoming elections.

He declares, “The public should understand that this government is insensitive to the yearning of its people and not ready to take advice from credible people in the country. We want the government to learn from what happened in Ekiti State.

“The support for Jonathan to come back to power will depend on what he does to pensioners nationwide between now and 2015. Pensioners are one of the major segments of Nigeria’s population, and any direction we tend to follow will definitely create an impact.”

The National Secretary FUPA, Jonathan Iyoo, agrees with Kura and Soremekun that university retirees are facing hard times.

He says, “It is unfortunate that since 2009 the government said it had given us increment, there has been no implementation. Sometime last year, precisely in August, the military benefited from it, getting 33 per cent. Whether it is 33 or 53 per cent, what we are saying is that there has been no implementation.

“Going by the constitution, there should be pension review every five years. The authorities are not following this. We have written a series of letters to the President, Minister of Finance and the National Assembly concerning our plight, yet nothing has happened. Market forces are not waiting for us. We used our money to train our children and today there are no jobs for them. You see, the government is not employing our children, and it is not paying us.

“The President should know that he is a product of the university system. The minister of finance should also know that she comes from the system. Her parents are also university retirees.”

On the alleged preference to military pensioners, Soremekun notes that perhaps they received the favour because they are “managers of violence”.

“The government is toying with human security. It shows that the government is not trying to have a human face. We see transformation programmes all over the place by the administration and yet it is ignoring the human dimension. This should not be so,” the retired teacher adds.

However, even as the university retirees are complaining of marginalisation, a source in the National Pension Commission says the non-implementation of the 2009 promise is not peculiar to FUPA members.

The source, who admits that military pensioners have an independent pension directorate, notes that retirees from many other organisations are in a similar situation as the FUPA members.

He adds, “Government has not implemented 2009 increment. Government is always behind in implementing such a policy. In fact, it has not been implementing the pension policy, as it ought to. That has always been the cry of pensioners.

“You see, military pensioners are always putting pressure on government. So, the authorities try to take care of that constituency. For other category of pensioners, they have not implemented it. Ordinarily, once there is salary increment, governments at all levels are supposed to effect the increment but they hardly do that on time.”

Meanwhile, calls to the telephone numbers of the Acting Director-General of the National Pension Commission, Chinelo Anohu-Amaizu, did not go through.

She also did not respond to the text messages sent to her telephone number over the matter.

But the commission’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Emeka Onuora, in his response, says, “Any enquiry about your request has to do with the Defined Benefits Scheme, that is, the old pension scheme. The Pension Transitional Administration Department is in the best position to answer your question.”

Part of one of FUPA’s petitions to President Jonathan reads, “As elderly people and believers in the solid integrity of the executive President and No 1 citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we could not expect that the President will renege on his promise.

“This communication therefore is intended to remind your Excellency that the expected approval for the implementation of the 53 per cent pension increase with arrears in fulfilment of the executive promise is long overdue. Note that this promise has to do with very elderly people and so no reasonable undertaking of this nature should not be flicked.

“The continued delay in the implementation of the 53 per cent pension for years is doing more harm to your exalted name as well as to the economy of the country, since unnecessary accumulation of arrears is a deliberate invitation to economic murder through inflation.”