Payment of pension at Community Government Council (CGC) offices is six months old from April 2013 to September 2013.  Its rejection was spontaneous the moment His Excellency Owelle Rochas Okorocha (OON) announced it at the Heroes Square where thousands of pensioners gathered to hear from his good news about payments of gratuity, pension arrears, pension reviews and pension, harmonization.  When they heard a totally strange policy that as from April 2013 they should go to their villages to receive their pension their reactions ranged from visible shock to incredulity.  Since then their ears have been itching to hear the gains of moving them from sub-treasuries to CGC offices.  Imo State Government does not starve the people of the results of its pace setting achievements.  Its silence over this raises a question as to whether it has stepped into a mess.

In their open letter to His Excellency dated March 18, 2013 and published by Weekend Announcer of Friday, March 20, 2013 and Citystar of March 25, 2013, Resourceful Ageing Organization stressed that Imo State pensioners place greater value on their personal privacy, safety and image than on pension.  Maybe following these publications and other appeals from respectable quarters, His Excellency graciously approved resumption of payment of pension to top class retirees and non-indigenes in Owerri Sub-treasury.  This is a mark of humility which is one of the greatest human virtues that is rare in politicians.  Those of them who have it earn the love, admiration and esteem of discerning members in the society.  Don’t judge.  After all, Francis Bacon said that laws are like cobwebs where small flies are caught and the great break through.

It is unarguable that His Excellency’s Special Adviser on Pension Reform did not seek the advice of responsible people in government.  It is obvious he did not consult the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice.  He did not consult the Head of Service and Accountant General who are jointly in-charge of pension matters and others who have special knowledge in this field.  If he did they would have saved all pensioners the tears and stress of going to their villages to collect their pension by lecturing him on the following:

The Constitution has not been amended or repealed.  Therefore, neither the Constitution or any law empowers the government to choose pay points for pensioners.  Government can create pay points but the choice of where to be paid is strictly at the discretion of the pensioners.  To deny them this right is an erosion of their citizenship.

All pensioners share the same reverential nickname of Senior Citizen and have equal rights and privileges under the Constitution which His Excellency swore to protect.

Imposition of pay points on pensioners automatically involves indirect taxation on pension.  This is unconstitutional and cannot be said to be a kind act when the pensioners can ill afford the transport and other costs that are entailed in traveling to their primordial homes to collect their pension.  In obedience to the Constitution Rivers State Government exempts all pensioners from payment of social services contributing levies because it amounts to tax on pension which Imo State Government violates (see page 47 of Thisday August 15, 2011).

Imposition of pension pay points creates additional problems for divorced women who do not by birth belong to the same states or communities with their divorced husbands.  The communities of their estranged spouses are invariably their enemy territories.

Eighty percent of World Bank and Government low cost housing estates in Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe are owned and occupied by Imo State pensioners who were in the service when they were built and allocated.  Many of them do not have such homes in their native communities and have no resources to do so now.  Even retired teachers who served in the rural areas have been moved by their children to obscure parts of the cities in response to the menace of kidnappers.  These factors explain why pension payrolls of Owerri alone account for three quarters of Imo State pension payrolls.

New pension pay points create artificial transport demand from the cities to the rural areas every end of the month.  This increases chances of accidental loss of lives, hurts the state economy and creates stress to fragile pensioners.

The purpose of this policy is not stated.  As a result the blank space is being filled with speculations and conjectures.  Some say it is to fish out ghost pensioners, if they exist, but this search has been on since 2006 and no ghosts have been caught.  Others say it is to bring pay points nearer to the pensioners.  But not a single pensioner has ever, ever complained of going long distance to collect his/her pension.  Their concerns are unpaid gratuity, pension arrears and livable pension.  Government does not respond to these.  Some say it is to keep the CGC offices busy but this is exploitation contrary to Section 17(3)(f) of the Constitution.  Still others speculate that this is to create confusion so that those in government can help themselves from pension fund.  They wonder why the civil servants who know that it is unlawful to obey unlawful instruction and refused transfer to CGC are now zealously forcing pensioners to CGC if not for personal gain?

Claims of existence of CGC offices were not certified before making them pension pay points and rendering Accountant-General’s field staff redundant.

Imo State pensioners did not work for CGCs.  Forcing them and sending them there to collect their pension is as humiliating as a slave master selling his slaves to another master without their consent.  Pensioners are Senior Citizens not cartels.  Inter state deportation is wrong but less odious than forcing pensioners to go back to their deserted rural areas.

Imo State Government has improved security but the creation of hundreds of pension pay points is like expanding the areas of temptation for robbery gangs to harass the secretaries who carry the cheques.  It is easier to police the existing 22 Sub-treasuries than 643 CGC pay points.

Retirement is a long period of leisure which in Nigeria quickly turns into boredom and loneliness.  Going to Sub-Treasuries one day in a month to collect pension relieves Imo State pensioners a bit of this boredom and loneliness.  It affords them opportunity to socialize with their colleagues and relive old jokes and collect information about death or sickness of their colleagues.  Therefore payment of their pension at their CGC offices quarantines them further to the detriment of their health.

Imo State pensioners know that continuity is not a way of governance in Imo State and this is to the disadvantage of the citizenry.  They are witnesses of abandoned projects and programmes by successors only because they did not start them.  This explains the absence of the usual epidemic of ‘thank you’ advert messages which would have followed His Excellency’s directive on payment of pension at CGC offices, just as they were silent when His Excellency declared July 18 as Imo Pensioners Day on July 18, 2011.  They anticipated it would be abandoned and it appears it has been abandoned.

All said, the sudden increase in pension pay points from 22 to 643 in this electronic age is not a healthy growth.  It is an illness called obesity.  The Accountant-General of the federation pays millions of federal pensioners through 24 banks only and it happens in a split second without exposure.  What Imo State pensioners have been asking and still ask for are (1) Review of pension every five years or earlier when there is salary increase; (2) Payment of pension arrears to primary school teachers and retired staff of government of agencies; (3) Payment of full gratuity before expiration of retirement leave; (4) Payment of arrears of gratuity; (5) Minimum livable pension that brings those on N500 a month up to the minimum wage level of N20,000 a month.  They have never asked for payment of pension in their village squares with their traditional rulers, spouses and grandchildren as witnesses  to skip their demands and give them embarrassing favour is what our Lord Jesus Christ had in mind 2000 years ago when he asked “If a son shall ask a father for bread will he give him a stone? Or if he ask for fish, will he give him a serpent?” (Luke 11:11).

Any day the rank and file pensioners are redeemed from Bacon’s cobweb they owe big debt of gratitude to the Association of retired Permanent Secretaries and Association of Retired Judges who have in their flight created an exit hole in the cobweb.

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