By Amos Aar
SOME retirees in Benue State have appealed to Governor Hyacinth Alia to pay arrears of pension and gratuities to enable them to cope with the current high cost of living in the country.
The pensioners who spoke with National Record on Saturday in Makurdi under anonymity for fear of retribution, lamented that although the governor has been paying their monthly pensions, they are finding it difficult to even feed well with it since the backlog of arrears which he inherited have not been payed contrary to his promise to them during electioneering campaigns.
“Fada has tried so much. But we are appealing that despite challenges, he should try and pay us our accumulated arrears and gratuity. He has been giving us something at the end of every month, but since the accumulated arrears and gratuity are not paid, it has never been easy with us.
ALSO READ:
OTUWA President, Mademba Sock, Is Dead
Minimum Wage And Pension Alignment: Legal Mandates Versus Equity In Nigeria’s Retirement System; By Ivor Takor
Nigeria’s Strongmen And The Hope Of Their Exploited Brethren; By Aminu Habibu Jahun
June 12th: Can We Really Celebrate 25 years Of Democracy? By Jibrin Ibrahim
“So, the governor should try and look into that as well. We know that he is a listening and a caring governor. So, he will definitely do something about it,” one of the pensioners pleaded.
Commenting on the 2024 democracy day celebration, another retiree said it was not worth celebrating given the level of insecurity and high cost of food items in the market which has made life very difficult for the masses.
“At the national level, the one-year in office of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has nothing to be assessed, considering the insecurity and high cost of things in the market. This is not what we wanted.
“We have not enjoyed this democracy because when an administration creates problems and exits office, nobody cares to ask them questions. Buhari would have renovated the refineries so that when subsidy was removed, two of the refineries would have been working so that high cost of living would have been averted”, he opined.
On whether Tinubu should have made a supplementary budget for payment of fuel subsidy to stabilise Nigeria’s economy, the pensioner said: “You know, Nigerians are always afraid to say something when somebody is on the throne. The supplementary budget can be made in few months.
“For the whole year, we have been hearing about that but nothing has come out of it. So, the supplementary budget is a way of blindfolding people that something is going to happen but nothing is coming out of it.”
