Yesterday, when pensioners occupied the entire region to protest the non-payment of their gratuities since they retired from active duty, the popularly known Ring Road into Benin City was overrun by heavy traffic.
But in a prompt response, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, the governor of Edo State, reaffirmed the administration's commitment to resolving the state's pension problems and urged pensioners to exercise patience as the government deals with outstanding concerns.
The senior citizens, who were all dressed in black, claimed that the previous administration of Adams Oshiomhole had stopped paying their gratuities in 2012 and that the current administration had not continued the practice. They noted that the Oshiomhole administration had begun paying gratuities in 1998 and had not stopped until 2012, as of the time he left office in 2016.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Amadin Okoro said “We are aggrieved; a lot of us are dying. A lot of us are not well, many of them are supposed to go for operations, no money. Besides gratuity, local government retirees are owed arrears and their gratuities since 2008. But for the state, it has not been paid since 2012 till date.
“Our appeal to the governor is that he should pay us so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labour, which we suffered for 35 years. In fairness, we receive our pensions monthly but the crux of the matter is our gratuity.”
Another protester, Esther Ehigie said she retired in 2012, and that they were screened and invited to a meeting in 2017, where the authority for payment which is called yellow paper was collected from them but their money was not paid.
Reacting to the development, the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare said the Obaseki’s administration has been paying the gratuities of all those who have retired since he became governor and that provision has already been made to clear the backlog.
He said: “We have gone very far to tackle the backlog, we made promises to the pensioners that they we will pay their arrears which we have done, we made promise that they will get their pensions as at when due, that we have done, the third leg of that is to clear the gratuity arrears, which is a huge sum of money, we have a plan in place which is coming to fruition, in the 2023 budget, we made provision to clear some of these gratuities and those pensioners have been put in batches so that they can be paid and very soon this will be affected.
“We implore our pensioners to exercise more patience and restraint while the issues are being sorted out.”
Also in a statement, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media Projects, Crusoe Osagie, noted that the government has shown good faith by solving two out of the three major issues affecting pensioners in the state.
According to him, “It is instructive to note that when the Governor Obaseki-led administration came into office in 2016, the pension-related challenges in the state were three-pronged.
“They include unpaid pension arrears running into over N4bn; failure to harmonise pension payment and the issue of outstanding gratuities owed pensioners.
“These issues dated back to 2010 and the government at that time failed to address the challenges, leading to the accumulation of a backlog of pension arrears and gratuities. It is necessary to emphasise that these problems predate the current administration.
“Of these three major challenges that pensioners in Edo State faced, the Obaseki-led government took the bold step to successfully address two and is hard at work in solving the last of them, which is clearing outstanding gratuities.”
He continued: “The government has cleared the backlog of arrears and ensured the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme to check a repeat of the ugly trend and has also harmonised pension payment – which had lingered for over 20 years – ensuring that pensions are better paid in line with current realities in Edo State.
“We urge pensioners in the Edo State to be patient and show good faith as the government’s commitment to their welfare has never been in doubt.
“It should bring some hope and succour that in the last six years, the government has solved two of the issues and is on the verge of sorting the challenges by clearing gratuities.
“It is for this reason that we call for calm and urge them to be assured of the government’s resolve to solve all outstanding issues.”