Revisitng the Abia pension debacle: The dramatic U-turn, half-truths and blackmail
By Eagle Okoro
Brief Background History of Abia Pension Crisis
The crisis of irregular payment of pensions to Abia retirees can easily be traced to the inglorious, dark days of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and, precisely, toward the winding down of the eight-year administration of former Gov. Theodore Ahamefula Orji, alias Ochendo, sometime around 2014.
The strange development was dumbfounding to the affected retirees, who, naturally took it with incredible equanimity, confident that the experience was going to be shortlived. Unfortunately, it lingered beyond their expectations and surprisingly mutated from being epileptic to becoming a permanent phenomenon that lasted conservatively one decade long.
And for that long, the fate of an average Abia pensioner hung precariously in a balance, leaving very pathetic picture of these special, senior citizens.
The pension merely trickled in like a drying tap. And when it came, it was in fractions. Many rightly speculated that the outgoing Gov. Ochendo was pooling funds from every source possible, including funds devoted to pension payment, to be able to muster the financial muscle to execute the 2015 Governorship Election. Ochendo was determined, or rather desperate, to install his stooge and anointed Okezie Ikpeazu, who his family preferred over and against a much better prepared, more credible and popular Alex Otti.
Recall that Ikpeazu’s election was bankrolled by the Ochendo’s administration, whole and entire, given that the young man then had practically nothing in his bank account to run such a costly electioneering contest.
Unfortunately, the arrears of pensions began to accummulate. From one month to two months, it continued to pile up from Ochendo to his successor, Ikpeazu, until it eventually hit a scandalous all time high of 45 long months at the time he exited office in May 2023.
Intermittently, during the period, the senior citizens were invited to the sub-Treasury on Bende Road/School Road for one type of verification or the other. At such instances, they would travel to the place from their respective places of abode across the 17 Local Government Areas of the state, in spite of their sickly and frail health conditions.
Reports were rife and continual about cases of many that slumped and fainted, while waiting for their turn to be attende to in the usually long queues and crowded office. There were also reports about those that died in their homes soon after their exhausting and energy-sapping trips to Umuahia.
It was a common experience to see many of them, who borrowed to transport themselves to Umuahia for such exercises, hoping to pick their pension and defray the borrowed fare, ending up getting nothing and only having to rely on charity from kind residents of Umuahia to be able to pay their way back home. Indeed, it was an excruciating experience of double jeopardy for this most vulnerable of the whole lot.
Apparently, the most interesting times in the life of these unfortunate pensioners were the days of street protests, which they repeatedly organised to prevail on the government of Ochendo to pay them. They were later to accuse him of betraying their trust, being a “pensioner” himself.
On many occasions, these distraught and frail-looking elders had to march up to the Government House, dressed in all black attire, to have audience with him, without luck.
This was the ugly and sorry situation that Ikpeazu inherited from his godfather and, unfortunately, did absolutely nothing significant to halt the ugly trend. Hence, the already bad condition deteriorated and got worse until life itself became unbearable for the pensioners. Worse still, the mortality rate among them spiked and no month passed without one, two or three regrettably passing on.
These were respectable men and women, technocrats, highly skilled professionals, who devoted their youthful and active years to the service of the state, dying in their numbers after painful and agonising experiences in the hands of Ochendo and Ikpeazu.
Most of them reportedly died from protracted health challenges and complications that resulted from hunger and sundry other ailments, which they lacked the financial capacity to deal with. Also, many of them suffered and died of depression, following protracted period of uncertainties, frustration and hopelessness. This was the incredibly dehumanising condition that Ikpeazu bequethed his successor, Gov. Chioma Alex Otti, on May 29, 2023.
And deeply worried by the unhealthy situation that starkly stared him in the face upon his assumption of office, he immediately set the machinery in motion to sort out the knotty pension issues and restore sanity, regularity and accountability in the payment process.
Without waste of time, this target was achieved the same way he stoically brought sanity and order in the payment of the salaries of the civil servants, plus the defrayment of the arrears of some “uncore” agencies and parastatals of government.
Today, to the credit of Otti’s government, both salaries and pensions are now paid simultaneously as and when due, precisely on the 28th of every new month, in line with his campaign promise.
Achieving this lofty feat did not only distinguish the administration from the last two but further endeared it to the entire Abia citizenry, workers and non-workers, alike.
It also put a permanent end to the scandalous phenomenon of accummulated arrears of unpaid salaries and pensions, which was Ikpeazu’s Achilles heel, and marked an abysmal end of an era that is defined as the most insensitive, visionless, unserious and lousy administration ever recorded in the history of God’s Own State.
TOWARD ACHIEVING A CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH
With an honest intention to fashion out how best to permanently deal with the lingering, defiant pension
debacle, the governor religiously and committedly commenced a roundtable negotiation with the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP).
The negotiation progressed steadily in a friendly, harmonious and rancour-free atmosphere between the government’s representatives and NUP team of seasoned and veteran negotiators. Men, who spent their years in active service, representing their umbrella body in institutional negotiations.
Gladly, after thorough and fruitful deliberations with either side conceding grounds in the most convivial spirit of give and take came the glorious moment to append signatures to the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), which captured the kernel of all the mutually agreed terms.
Expectedly, both parties had ample opportunity to peruse through the document, make observations, seek clarification on grey areas and effect corrections, where necessary. All the established stages and procedures of going back and forth in labour negotiations were carefully and exhaustively observed and, finally, the document was signed and sealed for implementation.
Following the positive outcome of the robust negotiation, Gov. Otti again wasted no time to approve over N9 billion to defray the outstanding pension arrears to the 12,500 affected retirees.
This auspicious moment marked a watershed in the government’s tortuous journey to end the menace of pension arrears. The feat was received with wide celebration by the pensioners themselves, their family members and Abians of goodwill. For every well-meaning Abia person or resident, this was a dream come true for the aged beneficiaries.
It was also significant that both parties went home rejoicing that the jinx surrounding the protracted pension issues had finally been broken. And it was against this backdrop that the governor proceeded to happily brag at a media parley in June or so that pensions would be regularly paid as and when due, going forward, and that “never again will anybody owe our pensioners in this state”.
In a special manner, some of the pensioners, who were exceedingly excited by the positive development, organised a thanksgiving church service at The Apostolic Church Nigeria, Umuahia Area.
In a speech at the event, the Chairman of the group, operating under the aegis of the Members of Concerned Abia Pensioners, Elder John Kalu, thanked God for using the governor to wipe away their tears and end their long years of agony.
Other executive members of the group, including Mr Okechukwu Ehisianya and Mrs Mercy Ogbonna, also made touching remarks, when they said, “We suffered and passed through hell, while many of our members died and some have been in bad health conditions before Gov. Otti came to office and decided to pay us”.
They thanked him for putting smiles on their faces, adding that the payment of the pension arrears “has brought back life to them”.
In a remark, the Pastor-in-charge and Area Superintendent of the church, Apostle Bernard Ugbor, also had kind words for the governor.
Ugbor said: “I thank God for the kind gesture of our dynamic governor for remembering these retirees.
“Thank God for the pension arrears that he has cleared and we pray that he would do more.
“To have this set of people in mind is an indication that the governor is a God-fearing leader.
“God will bless him and will continue to bless him. I know his government is going to be the best by God’s grace.”
It was against the backdrop of the huge celebration that greeted the governor’s remarkable, life-saving gesture that events of the last few weeks by a splinter group of the pensioners are considered worrisome and most inappropriate and uncharitable way to reciprocate the governor’s benevolence and magnanimity lavished on a neglected, abandoned and ill-treated senior citizens.
MATTERS ARISING: The dramatic U-turn made by the NUP negotiators, who resorted to churning out half truths in the media, alleging that they were deceived to signing the MoA, basically smacks of ingratitude and an ungodly attempt to blackmail a compassionate, caring administration.
The volte face and resort to deploying innuendos in the entire conversation, criticising the government for allegedly scamming them, was tantamount to reopening a healed wound. In the same vein, the aggression and provocation so far displayed by the senior citizens in the handling of the issue can veritably be likened to paying good with evil and, proverbially, biting the finger that has fed and still feeds them.
It was least imagined that a crack team of supposedly experienced labour negotiators would append their signatures to a document as weighty as the one in question, gladly enjoy the product of what they termed “controversial” MoA and, without scruples, shamelessly turn back five months later, as an after thought, to behave in such an infantile manner that defies logic and reason.
Granted, the NUP negotiators alleged that they signed the document “under duress”, were they also under gunpoint to either “sign or die”? Were they not the same people that observed and pointed out some typo errors in the name of their union, which was promptly corrected?
How ridiculous it was to hear that the same men, who emerged from the Office of the Commissioner for Finance at the end of signing the document, beaming with smiles for having accomplished a great feat that would positively change the narrative for the union and its members, would do a 360-degree turnaround, several months after, to allege foul play against the government!
It was also most inconceivable and preposterous, to say the least, that the senior citizens could go so petty to enlist the assistance of the opposition PDP to attack the government, by pushing unreasonable narratives regarding the government-labour agreement to sway public opinion in sympathy for the pensioners and also armtwist the government to “revisit” the terms of the MoA. Yet, it was the same merciless PDP that plunged them into the quagmire and abandoned them to rot in the mess without regret. So, why are they now ventilating their anger against an interventionist government?
And I dare to ask again, who are these strange faces masquerading as new-found lovers of Abia pensioners? Where are they coming from and how is it they have suddenly found their voices, which they lost in those dark days of Ikpeazu’s government? Where were these holier than thou, naysayer advocates, (the Barr. Okey Kanus,) when their own PDP governors shamelessly supervised the unholy accumulation of unpaid pensions for practically four years, yet did not take to the streets with placards?
Of course, the approach adopted by these senior citizens is both obnoxious and opprobrious rather than complimentary and persuasive. It was also debasing and inconsistent with decent reasoning.
Without mincing words, Gov. Otti has in his 17 months in office demonstrated genuine concern, compassion and commitment toward guaranteeing the welfare and wellbeing of pensioners in the state. His sincerity of purpose remained consistent and remarkably convincing.
He harboured no mischief in his entire dealings to better the lot of the retirees, who were made to go through hell for 45 months. He has left no Abian or non Abian in doubt that he substantially differs in no small measure from the typical, average wicked and insensitive Nigerian politician but genuinely means well for the state and its good people.
Gov. Alex Otti would never deliberately indulge in an act to shortchange the vulnerable persons, whose vulnerability and interest constitute the essence of his being in government. He is ever poised to bend over backwards to right any wrong seen to have been committed as a mortal being he is, provided he also sees clearly genuine and convincing reasons to do so, without being coerced, armtwistted or blackmailed.
It is therefore recommended that the pensioners change their confrontational and denigatory, offensive, provocative and slanderous tactics and resolve to toe the humble path of persuasion, exploring all orthodox and unorthodox approaches to appeal to the governor’s good conscience and sensibilities to show greater compassion and magnanimity by having a rethink on an already concluded matter, especially if the window for a revisit to the MoA is still open.
#To God be the glory for what He is doing in Abia!
-Eagle Okoro is a Public Affairs analyst and writes from Umuahia