I have been bemused to discover that a considerable number of civil servants reportedly try to falsify their age or engage in subtle mutilation of working records for purposes of elongating their years of service. I have always felt that after a bountiful 35 years of service or clocking 60 years as required in civil service guideline, any career worker should quit the scene and begins to enjoy the “senior citizen” status. However, I have come to realize why some civil servants attempt to stay longer and perpetuate themselves in the service despite age challenges. In view of the indifferent approach extended to the senior citizens by successive state governments in Imo state, I have come to realize why most government workers are scared stiff of retirement.
The pitiable case of the present pensioners in the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), the state-owned radio and television outfit explains why retirement has transformed from a moment of respite to season of nightmares.
My Chief Press Secretary position from 2007 to 2011 in the Imo State House of Assembly drew me close to the operations and operators of the media organization that undoubtedly produced some of the finest brains and experts in the sector. In the course of my official duties with the corporation, I developed personal relationship with some senior colleagues who continued the rosy relationship till date. Few days ago, I had the opportunity of interacting with one of them. This time, not in my usual joint, where I enjoy normal “fellowship” but at a function in the state capital. The Senior Colleague who I might not reveal his identity disclosed that he has few months to quit IBC, but he is worried about the future. He opined that the present state of retired IBC pensioners is disgusting and an indication that the future is bleak for a retiree. Initially, I was stunned by his hopeless state until I realized that the IBC pensioners have been in the news of late.
Further inquires and investigations revealed that the aggrieved pensioners are nothing but could be “endangered species” in the Owelle Rochas Okorocha Rescue Mission Government. That could be the reason why one of the placards carried by the pensioners at FSP Gate on Whetheral Road, Owerri, before they were allegedly dispersed by men of the Nigerian Police, Imo state command, bore “My people, My people”. Are IBC pensioners not part of my people?
It is a common knowledge that part of the first step taken by the present administration to conquer the heart of the people especially the senior citizens was the payment of pension arrears owed to civil servants in the state. The Governor, Owelle Rochas went further to add a comic relief during the payment to feed them with food at the stadium and adorn the retirees with Rescue Mission T-shirts and caps. I am also aware that unlike the IBC pensioners, retired teachers in the state, staff of ministries and other categories of workers in the state are catered for, so what is the offence of IBC pensioners to warrant the neglect? Are they not part and parcel of the much-touted Rescue Mission? If the state will consider recalling 12 IBC staff that were wrongfully and unjustly relieved of their jobs eleven years by one of the past governments in the state, why shy away from the arrears and allowances of the corporation’s pensions.
According to the IBC pensioners’ report card, they have not received their pension allowances for the past 22 months. The periods are Dec 2010, 1 month, Jan-Dec 2011-12 months and Jan-Sept 2012, 9months. The breakdown shows that the immediate past government inherited outstanding arrears and owed them for few months before the present administration took over from June last year to stockpile the allowances again. The total amount is N104, 606, 493.
According to the chairman of IBC pensioners, Chief D. Asinnugwo, about ten of them have so far died while many are on their sick beds because of their inability to access Medicare and meet other pressing needs of theirs owing to abject poverty. Efforts to decipher reasons for state government’s inglorious approach to the IBC pensioners’ debacle was futile but concerned stakeholders believe that their plight might not be unconnected to the alleged partisan role of the corporation before and during the build up to last year’s general election. IBC’s allegiance to the former government may have irked the present administration to turn its back on them. Whether this factor is responsible for the IBC pensioners neglect or not, the state governor, Okorocha should realize what is obtainable in our political climate; most state broadcasting outfits are the mouth piece of their governments and IBC will not be an exception. The corporation will continue to serve the interest of any “Government-in-Power” which the Rescue Mission government is also benefiting from.
Therefore, the pensioners should be part of “My people, My people”.
Before the pensioners are ravaged by abject poverty, I am elated that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. After a one-week hunger strike, which they did not let the public know if food entered their mouth within that period, as it failed to achieve the desired result, the embattled pensioners again organized a protest march. Their protest met a brick wall when they trooped to theFSP Mbari Street, Owerri, with placards preparatory for a peaceful demonstration before Police Commissioner, Adisa Bolanta and his team of officers sued for calm. The charged IBC pensioners were asked not to embark on the street march to avoid street urchins hijacking the exercise to cause mayhem. However, the resultant effect of that push was the set up of a task force to look into the plight of about 300 pensioners said to be languishing with hunger since Owelle came into power. The Chief of staff to the Governor, Prince Eze Madumere made this known when a delegation of the IBC Pensioners Association called on him. Eze Madumere said that the high-powered task force would be made up of the commissioners for Information and Strategy, Finance and Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, State Accountant General, a Perm Sec and Government officials.
It is my fervent wish especially that of the immediate families and benefactors that red-tapism and bureaucratic bottlenecks will not resurface to slow-pace the outcome of the committee before more of the IBC pensioners are denied the opportunity of their entitlements as a result of death.
