From Bode Durojaiye, Oyo.
After years of service to the government, retirees should have some pension to live on.
But not so in Nigeria as thousands of pensioners have become beggars in their fatherland.
Working for the government for decades, it is expected that after their retirement, the same government should take care of them but today, pensioners wait endlessly for years of pension arrears not paid by the government.
This has caused them so much pain.
One of these pensioners is Pa George Olayiwola Owolabi.
A university graduate of Physical and Health Education, he is one of the senior citizens who, having diligently served in the public service for 35 years, have been encountering some inhuman actions from the government.
Pa Owolabi retired about 15 years ago and since then, has been going through one form of cruelty to another from the government.
Today, due to the fact that his pension money is not forthcoming to, at least, buy some drugs, he is suffering from paralysis.
Because of his condition, he now begs for alms from neighbours.
Pa Owolabi retired as an Assistant Director from national headquarters of the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre, an arm of the Federal Ministry of Youth Development in year 2000.
His monthly pension stipend used to be N49,072.80k, but suddenly by December 31, 2005, N10,000 was deducted from the stipend without any reason.
All enquiries and complaints about this development to the then Director-General of the centre, Mallam Yussuf Adamu, were to no avail.
Also, Pa Owolabi was denied payment of his pension
benefit which ought to have been paid on his retirement, as frantic efforts to find out this also proved abortive.
What is more, the deducted pension stipend has not been forthcoming to Pa Owolabi through his bank, the Union Bank, in the last six months.
Speaking with Freedom Online at his Kosobo, Oyo
residence, Pa Owolabi who looked haggard and dejected wept
uncontrollaby as he narrated the dehumanising and uncaring manners the government has been treating him.
A look round his sitting room revealed some of the
photographs which portrayed Pa Owolabi as a handsome, good-looking and dynamic young man who is happily married children.
Pa Owolabi said after retirement, he was framed with another deceased colleague for an offence they knew nothing about and charged to court in Lagos.
“There was no month since the case started that I would not travel from Oyo to Lagos twice to appear. I had motor accident twice and was hospitalised. I sustained serious injuries to the extent that my wife and children thought I had died. I thank God I am alive today. While this lasted, my employer did not show any sympathy”.
He said as a dedicated and committed officer, he was transferred from Jos to head the training department in Lagos, the position which gave him the privilege of knowing top security brass in the country, notable politicians and executive officers of both public and private establishments.
“I never received a query, let alone found wanting in the
discharge of my duty in the 35 years I served the country. Why then am I being persecuted and victimised? Why am I being unjustly punished? Imagine me begging for alms to survive with my condition. I wasn’t born like this, the partial paralysis was as a result of psychological trauma I was wickedly subjected to by the centre’s management. In addition to begging for alms, my neighbours are compassionate people who donate foodstuffs occasionally to me. I have children who are well read and working. But there is a limit to what they can do, because they have their own commitments and challenges as well’’
Pa Owolabi, an indegene of Oyo town, who is living with his ailing wife and grand daughter told our correspondent that he could not afford costs of essential drugs needed both for himself and spouse due to non-payment of his entitlements after retirement.
He, therefore, sent an SOS to the Minister of Sports and Youths Development to come to his aid and ensure the payment of his pension arrears.
