They all looked haggard. It was clear that some of them hardly had a square meal a day and were probably surviving at the mercy of friends, neighbours and relations. But some among them said they had vowed to keep their dignity, preferring to starve rather than beg for food. And for taking such decision, some of them have paid dearly for it.That was the lot of members of Association of Power Holding Company of Nigerian (PHCN) Pensioners, Alimoso Chapter, Lagos State. They looked dejected and hungry as a result of non payment of their entitlements, which included non payment of their pensions for more than four months, non payment of their gratuities, electricity rebate arrears since 2009, harmonisation and monetisation arrears of 133 per cent of which 33 per cent payment approval was granted since 2013 by the Federal Government.
To protest the non payment of these entitlements, the retirees took to the streets. Among the distraught senior citizens was a blind octogenarian, Comrade Adedoyin Bashiru. He said he was determined to join his comrades to bring their plight to the attention of Akowojo and Egbeda communities and the rest of Lagos State. He was unhappy that he not only spends the stipends he receives as pension on feeding but also on his health. He disclosed that he spends N5,000 monthly to take care of his eyes. The Ondo State indigene who joined government service in 1981 as a worker of the then Electricity Company of Nigeria (ECN), stated that he trekked from his home at Berger area of the state to join his comrades because he had no transport fares.
“It was only by God’s grace that I could come here without being involved in an accident,” Comrade Bashiru said. “I know that an accident can occur anytime; so I always put my identity card in my pocket.”
Comrade Bashiru recalled that he lost his eyes in the course of duty but was neglected and left to carry his cross in the past 40 years. He said it was the accident that led to his compulsory retirement.
“I worked as a security man at Central Store Oshodi. It was while I was at work that I lost of eyes; till today, it remains a total mystery to me how it happened. After the loss, I was forced to retire without compensation or gratuity. I have been catering for my eyes with my pension in the past 40 years” he said.
Another young retiree, who said he was forced out of PHCN was Comrade Seunfunmi Afolake. Life for her has not been a bed of roses, as she says she has been straining to give her children basic education. She recalled that she only worked for 15 years before she was forced to retire from service.
Her words: “I worked between 1985 and 2000 before I was compulsorily retired. Before the incident, I was not issued with any query or reprimand. But just one day in 2000, my name popped up on the list of those slated for retirement. That was the year government embarked on its restructuring exercise.” She said that looked like the end of the road for her, as she was left to deal with giving her children good education and upbringing.
Daily Sun gathered that some of the retirees’ fortune took an unfortunate turn when they were being paid through the Ministry of Mines and Power. Comrade Dele Arowolo, who retired from service in 1991, lamented the system of payment. He stated that the delay in payment had denied them a lot of opportunities. He enjoined the government to return to its old system of payment, regretting that President Goodluck Jonathan might not be aware of their plight. He insisted that the new system was making caricature of their circumstances.
“About two years ago when they started this new organisation, things started going wrong. The first thing I noticed was that for two months, I was not paid. Thereafter, it became a serious battle leaving me with no money and no food. Subsequently, life became hard; those of us who had no house could not afford our rents.
“We want them to return to the policy by which we were paid regularly. This new system of payment, I am not sure the president knows about it. We worked under contributive pension. If we started paying a long time ago, by now we ought not to suffer. If the president does not know it he should please hear our cry,” he stated.
While addressing the media at the rally, the chairman of the association, Lawrence Aremo, disclosed that they were only pleading with the presidency to see to the root of their problem, lamenting that the endless promises that they would be paid regularly had not change their situation a bit. He narrated that their suffering was as a result of non payment of their entitlement.
“We call on the president to please save us. Our message to the government is that they should please not allow this issue to be swept under the carpet; they should please address this issue as fast as possible and transfer it to the president because we are suffering. Most of us have died. We don’t have money; we don’t have food and our families are suffering. On every occasion they say on Friday we will be paid, but in the past four months this Friday has not come. We want payment of the arrears not even the harmonisation, monetisation and other payments,” he demanded.
As a result of the 2001 restructuring by the defunct National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA), one man who felt the heat of the exercise was the spokesman of the association, Comrade Rotimi Fashina. He claimed that as a result of the exercise, he was forced to retire at an early age. To him, all the promises made to them before the retirement had not been fulfilled. He cited how his colleague had to commit suicide in Osun State, saying that the purpose of their protest was to ensure that his comrades do not die in penury.
His words: “We want to use this medium to appeal to the government to intervene in the non payment of our pension and arrears. We decided to take this action as a result of the death of about 100 of our members. As we speak today, over 2,199 of us nationwide are hospitalised because they are old people that need money to survive. Some of us who are young pensioners were forced out of office and we didn’t complain because we accepted it as our sacrifice to the stability of electricity management in Nigeria. But alas! They are now owing us; a lot of us have not being paid our gratuities; our harmonisation and monetisation benefits too are outstanding. But of particular concern to us is the issue of haphazard payment of our pension since this year.
“For instance, our December, January and February pension was paid on March 15. That of March and April was paid on July 15. We have never had it so bad before. As we speak, we have not been paid our pension arrears from May up to August. Now, September is here. There are reports in the local media that a pensioner hanged himself in Osun State. It was the story of a man who lost his wife two months ago. He took his own life when the reality of his children starving to death became too much a burden for him to bear. We are begging the Federal Government not to allow us hang ourselves. We have heard several stories; but we are not pointing fingers at anyone. However, we have reasons to believe that someone is doing something funny with our pension. This idea of owing us for three months and later two months arrears is not good at all. We are aware that our first and second quarter allocations have been released. We therefore see no reason we should not be paid,” he contended
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