I’ll offset accumulated gratuities, pension – Gov Akeredolu

Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has promised that the state government will start clearing accumulated gratuities of retired workers and the remaining arrears of pension as from January, next year. Akeredolu stated this in Akure, the state capital, while addressing retirees on the occasion of National Pensioners’ Day Celebration with a theme: Pension Without Tension, Without Tears: A Task that must be accomplished by the Union in the years ahead”. Represented by his Special Adviser on labour matters, Alaba Isijola, the Governor said necessary machineries were being put in place to ensure that pensioners in the state receive their pension and gratuities regularly. Majority of retired workers since 2011 are yet to collect their gratuities while local government pensioners are also being owed three months pension and state pensioners are being owed one month pension. Akeredolu said, “We inherited seven months pension arrears from the previous administration, but as at today we have cleared almost everything. On the gratuities, the government has mapped out strategies of paying affected pensioners as from January (2019). So be rest assured that we will not promise what he cannot do.” The governor said welfare of pensioners was very paramount to his administration, hence the decision to approve three of the requests of the Nigeria Union of pensioners (NUP) the state chapter when its leadership visited him recently. In an address, the state chairman of the Nigeria Union of pensioners (NUP), Chief Raphael Adetuwo called President Muhammadu Buhari and state governors to implement a section of the 1999 constitution that compels upward review of their pension to enable them cope with economic reality in the country. Adetuwo noted that continuous violation of section 173 subsection 3 and 210 (3) of the Constitution by government had exposed many retirees to untold hardship as some of them collect ridiculous pension like two to five thousand naira monthly. He said, “besides, it is inhumane that there are still some pensioners whose monthly pension is less than N5, 000 while many receive over N500, 000 monthly”. Adetuwo lamented that thirty percent pension increase approved in 2014 was yet to been implemented by both the federal and state governments. The NUP chairman who commended on governor Akeredolu for paying their pension regularly since he assumed office, urged him to offset accumulated gratuities of many pensioners and harmonised discrepancies in monthly pension of retirees. “Non-harmonization of pension is another painful issue to pensioners. A grade one principal of school who retired in 1986 received N40,000 per month while his counterpart who retired in 2013 received N250,000 monthly”. “It is our belief that if there is a minimum wage, there must also be a minimum pension and people who are retired on the same post and the same grade level ought to be earning the same monthly pension no matter the number of years separating their time or date of retirement”, the pensioners’ chairman said Adetuwo joined the call for the creation of ministry of pension affairs by the federal government to resolve various teething challenges of the senior citizens with more pragmatic approaches nationwide. Adewale Momoh, Akure