Igbawase Ukumba writes that the administration of Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has inherited a backlog of gratuity dating back to the then Plateau State. However, the governor has committed resources to offset the accumwulated entitlements been owed to the retired people.
Governor Abdullahi Sule had said Nasarawa State was in need of over N40 billion to clear the backlogs of gratuity been owed pensioners in the state. Sule disclosed this in Lafia, the state capital, during an interaction with journalists as part of activities marking his one year in office.
He, therefore, said his administration had been paying the pensioners 100 per cent of their pension as promised when he assumed office in order to help them take care of their families.
However, pensioners in the state, under the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), had decried at the non-payment of federal and state governments’ counterpart funds into the Local Government Pension Fund. Former Nasarawa State chairman of the NUP, Musa Obakpa, expressed feelings of the state pensioners over the situation when speaking on the occasion of the 2020 Pensioners’ Day celebration in Lafia.
“Another problem compounding our members at the Local Government is the failure of the federal and state governments to pay regularly their 5 per cent and 2.5 per cent Counterpart Funds respectively into the Local Government Pension Fund which was stopped without just case. May we bring to the attention of Governor Sule that section 173 subsection (3) and 210 stipulates that pension should be reviewed every five years or whenever wages of workers are reviewed of whichever comes earlier.
“It may interest the governor to know that the pensioners are due for another pension increase in the year 2015 as the last increase was made in 2010,” Obakpa complained.
The erstwhile Nasararwa State NUP chairman, therefore, maintained that the pensioners noted with satisfaction at the various strategies put in place by the Nasarawa State government to unravel reasons for the paucity of funds to pay monthly pension and gratuity as at when due.
“As the administration is writing its name in gold in this direction, this tangible exercise should be logically carried out with deligence,” he concluded.
Nevertheless, situation in the state became devastating following the garnishing of three reputable banks where the state government’s accounts were domiciled, sequel to a petition by a group of pensioners in the state. At that time, an Industrial Court sitting in Makurdi, Benue State, ordered the affected banks to immediately release the sum of over N1 billion to that group of pensioners
Furthermore, the Makurdi Division of the Industrial Court also reprimanded the Nasarawa State government for denying those who had served the state meritoriously their statutory entitlements.
Upon the garnishee order, Governor Abdullahi Sule had to run the state with Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), since the state government could not access its accounts.
Be that as it may, investigation revealed that the incumbent Governor Sule inherited close to five garnishee orders on arrival as governor of the state. This was even as investigation has further revealed that since the period of military administrations, the state had not been saving for gratuity. So gratuities have been accumulating and not paid.
Therefore, it is pertinent that as a result of that, there was a huge accumulation of gratuities. What the previous administration of Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura did was to set aside a certain amount of money to pay gratuities for the state. But Local Governments were not captured in the Governor Al-Makura’s “Retirees Payment System”.
To match words with action, the incumbent Nassarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, has begun the process of renewing the hope of retired people on the payroll of both state and local government as the Nassarawa State Pension Bureau on December 18, 2020 commenced payment of N500 million gratuity to 500 retirees in the state.
The erstwhile Director General of the state Pension Bureau, Abdullahi Sani Osaze, flagged off the electronic payment of the gratuities to retirees in Lafia.
According to the then Director General, “following the release of N500 millions by Governor Sule as part of gratuity payment, we are starting the e-payment exercise in batches until we finish.”
He commended Sule for priotising retirees’ welfare in the state, even as he appealed to the retirees for continuous support and cooperation with the current administration under the leadership of Governor Abdullahi Sule.
Worried by the current economic hardship faced by citizens of Nasarawa State, Governor Sule approved the sum of N1 billion to clear outstanding gratuity in the state from 1999 to 2010. Sule has approved the disbursements of the N1 billion to clear the outstanding gratuity of both local and state government retirees from 1999 to 2010, numbering over 1,000.
The governor broke this cheering news when he undertook an on-the-spot assessment of the ongoing screening exercise for over 700 Local Government, and 300 state retirees at the headquarters of the Nasarawa State Bureau for Pension Administration, recently.
According to the governor, “the N1 billion will clear the full gratuity of retirees both at the state and Local Government levels starting from 1999 to 2010.”
This was just as Governor Sule explained that his administration inherited a backlog of gratuity from the creation of the state in 1996 till date. He, therefore, maintained with optimism that with improved revenue accruing to the state, his administration saw the need to clear off gratuity of retirees starting from 1999 to 2010.
“I was told that the money would clear the gratuity of retirees from 1999 to 2010. Both at the Local Government and state levels. My dream again is that from 2011, when the amount increases significantly, we will complete the payment for 2011 by the end of this year. At the beginning of next year, we will pay purely from 2012,” he stated.
Governor Sule added that the gesture was meant to bring sucour to the retired people who were presently experiencing economic hardship.
“People are facing a lot of challenges today due to the economic hardship. That is the reason why we believe if we pay them their money, some of them are getting N1 million, some N2 million and even N3 million, the money will go a long way in reducing the hardship. This is in addition to whatever interventions we are having. Whether it is food items or whatever, let us pay them what is due to them, and that is their own gratuity,” he continued.
The governor expressed optimism that with 500 Local Government retirees, out of the over 700 and 100 state retirees, out of the over 300 already screened, the beneficiaries would begin to receive their payments immediately.
Also speaking, the Director General of the Nasarawa State Pension Bureau, Suleiman Musa Nagogo, said the bureau was going to clear the issue of gratuity in respect of all those who retired from 1999 until 2010 for both the state and Local Government retirees.
“Once we are able to handle those ones from 1999 to 2010, and as His Excellency, Governor Sule said, additional funds would be made available to clear that of retirees from 2011/2012, in order to make sure we have addressed the challenge of payment of gratuity in Nasarawa State,” Nagogo assured.
The DG further clarified that retired Permanent Secretaries numbering 60 would receive N2 million each while those who are deceased were likely to receive N4 million out of their entitlements.
He noted that since inception of the present administration under Governor Sule, both local and state pensioners have been receiving 100 per cent of their pension.
Nagogo used the opportunity to clear the air on why, in the past, the bureau was paying retired people over N100,000 as gratuity.
“Please recall that payment of this gratuity is being done on a quarterly basis which means that we gather the amount we have to receive in three months and announce to the people to come and collect their gratuity. But we don’t sit as a Bureau for Pension Administration and say we are paying N100,000.
“There is a committee called the Gratuity Disbursement Committee which is headed by the Deputy Governor of the state that sits down and look at the entire amount that has accrued for payment of gratuity and look at the recommendation that came from the BPA and how many people they can take at that quarter. It’s the same process we have been following in disbursing this money,” he stated.
The DG, however dismissed claims that files belonging to some retired people were missing.
“Whoever said his file is missing, I think he is only claiming so. I have never received complaints of anybody’s file not being able to be traced in this office,” Nagogo insisted.
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