I have no doubt that President Mohammadu Buhari will come to the rescue of New Nigerian Newspapers’ pensioners in the name of Almighty God and in the name of democracy, and do everything humanly possible to pay our pension and retirement benefits after 12 years of disengaging us from the services of the company.

The retrenchment exercise in New Nigerian Newspapers has come and gone, but the dust left in its wake is yet to settle since January 7, 2000. The promises made by previous administrations are either at a standstill or in slow motion, therefore, putting the pensioners between the rock and the hard place. Due to this inconveniences, our children cannot get standard education, good healthcare and good food. These are the basic challenges facing us. Therefore, the president should kindly help us, as our economic and social activities have been paralysed by the hardship inflicted on us.

This neglect is wicked, deplorable and inhuman sir, I hope the federal government’s programme of poverty eradication will not turn to poverty creation for us, because I am among over 300 pensioners retired since January 2000 and it is disturbing that our retirement benefits and entitlements have not been paid, let alone our pensions that should have commenced from the date of retirement.

We have written series of letters, but up till now, there has been no respite. Since then it has been one story or the other. Our appeal to the former President Olusegun Obasanjo through the then governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, yielded no result. In fact, we do not know the offence we have committed that should warrant the federal government to block its ears and turn blind eyes to our plight.

Is it a crime to serve one’s fatherland in his or her youthful years? If the answer is yes, then we beg to be forgiven and be paid our entitlements in the nearest possible time. If the answer is no, then why is it that the government has not deemed it fit and proper to pay us our entitlement since 2000? or should we continue to suffer until the government arrives at a particular formula for payment? Or why is it that the federal government finds it difficult to make any positive impact on us for the work we have laboured for and allow stalling undesirable elements to milk our public resources under various guises thereby stalling the expected dividends of democracy in the country? Over 204 affected pensioners by this inhumanity to man have lost their lives leaving their children to suffer and many others me just moving about the streets hopelessly.

Recently, billions of naira severance packages was approved for the lawmakers. The combined salary of our Senator and House of Representatives members per year is 65.32 billion naira and with all these, the whole country languishes in abject poverty and the country belongs to all of us both the poor and the rich.

I think the rules of civil service in this country stipulates that if a civil servant puts in 10 years and above, he or she is entitled to gratuity and pension. Therefore, one wonders why the New Nigerian Newspapers pensioners case is being treated differently or are we not Nigerians?

About 11 years ago, a series of meetings and communications with the office of the Head of Service, the Federal Ministry Of Finance and our supervising ministry (Information) and the federal government constituted a board of trustees under the government of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the New Nigerian Newspapers Staff Pension Scheme and the board was inaugurated on December 1, 2000. By then, the director of pensions and records office of the Head of Service of the Federation and the board was warned to treat the funds of the two bodies: New Nigerian Newspapers Pension Fund and New Nigerian Newspapers Operations Fund as mutually exclusive and that failure to comply with these conditions constitutes a serious offence. But all these are to no avail.

Finally, whoever is responsible for the delay in paying of our entitlements should remember that God Almighty is watching, and that one day they would be called upon to give account of their deeds Therefore, if they like they should continue to amass wealth without considering the masses’ entitlements.

Abdullahi Abubakar (Nda) wrote in from Kaduna

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