Blame NIPOST For My Blindness — Ojukwu, 65-Year-Old Pensioner
Pensioners in the country continue to go through horrendous experiences due to unpaid pension arrears without any hope in sight. 
CHUKWUDI AKASIKE writes on Dimgba Ojukwu’s plight
CHUKWUDI AKASIKE writes on Dimgba Ojukwu’s plight
WHEN pensioners are called senior citizens, it is because they have spent a huge part of their lives working for the country. However, these retired workers have continued to face tough times. Years of neglect through unpaid pension arrears have adversely affected the average pensioner in the country.
There is virtually no year that old men and women are not on the streets protesting the delay or non-payment of their pension. Surprisingly, relevant authorities have looked the other way while these senior citizens wallow in poverty. Some even die in misery. Often times, the aged women and men stand in sun for regular and unending verification exercises, which hardly yield positive results.
The worst hit among the groups of pensioners are the Nigerian Postal Service retirees. Theirs appear to be a case of persistent disregard for their right to earn a decent living after service.
Critics say while politicians acquire so much for themselves while in office, no consideration is given to pensioners, who can no longer attend to their needs.
One of the most pathetic cases of abandoned pensioners is that of Mr. Dimgba Ojukwu, who worked with the postal service organisation for 19 years and was retired as a head of security, in December 2004. The pensioner, who is 65 years old, has gone blind, yet NIPOST has allegedly failed to pay his 20-month pension arrears.
Ojukwu told SUNDAY PUNCH that he began to have problems with his sight in 2007 and immediately went to Mercy Eye Clinic in Abak, Rivers State. Unfortunately, he was financially incapacitated.
As time went on, his sight grew worse and before the end of 2007, he lost his sight completely
At the family level, things grew from bad to worse. His first son, Emeka Ojukwu, who was still in secondary school then, took to menial jobs when his father could no longer pay his school fees.
“I was not blind when I was working with NIPOST. But after my retirement, we (pensioners) were not paid anything. I retired in December 2004 from the post office in Trans-Amadi, Port Harcourt as the head of security. I lost my sight in 2007 because I could not get money to treat my eye problem. Before I completely went blind, my sight began to deteriorate but there was no money for treatment. Before I eventually went blind, my sight became blurred and I was seeing something like dew and everything was not clear. The worst part was that my former employers continue to owe us without making any move to pay us our pension arrears. Today, I cannot feed my family again,” Ojukwu said.
The angry pensioner, while speaking on the latest NIPOST pensioners’ protest, expressed sadness that the Postmaster General, Mr. Ibrahim Buba-Mori, had continued to renege on his promises to pay them. Ojukwu, who was almost in tears during the protest at the General Post Office in Port Harcourt, said he was happy that the protesters had locked up the premises of the post office.
He said, “Each time we go there to protest and lock up the premises, the authorities come begging, with the promise that we will soon be paid. At the end, nobody gets paid. Look at my condition; I cannot see again because my former employers do not care. I wish they could hand the key of the post office over to me because I am ready to swallow it if I lay my hands on it. This suffering is too much.”
His son, Emeka, who also spoke with SUNDAY PUNCH, explained that the non-payment of his father’s pension arrears for a long time meant that he had to carry some of the family’s financial burden, since their mother was a petty trader. Emeka said he engaged in all sorts of menial jobs in order to sit for his West Africa School Certificate Examinations.
“He is my dad and at my age, he is supposed to take care of us. But I have been doing menial jobs to sustain the family. I am supposed to be in the university now, but I cannot do that because there is no money. In fact, it was through the menial job that I was able to complete my secondary school education,” Emeka stated.
Speaking on Ojukwu’s plight, the General Secretary, National Union of Pensioners, NIPOST chapter, Rivers Territory, Mr. Happy Matthew, described Ojukwu’s case as one out of thousands of abandoned senior citizens.
Matthew said some of the pensioners were forced to relocate to their villages with their families, while others could not fend for their families due to unpaid pension arrears.
“The Accountant General of the Federation declared on December 7, 2012 that he was not indebted to pensioners. This means the pensioners’ arrears have been released, but the postmaster general has refused to pay. We are calling for the postmaster general’s removal. But before then, he (postmaster general) should release all our money and pay us,” Matthew said.
Lending his voice to Ojukwu’s case, the Chancellor of the International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights, Mr. Jackson Omenazu, said it was wrong for government to treat its senior citizens like lepers.
The human rights activist said the failure to pay pensioners their monthly stipends could be traced to corruption.
“Why would somebody serve the nation for many years and you then owe him for 20 months? It is the height of irresponsibility on the part of government; it is the violation of the pensioner’s human rights and it is man’s inhumanity to man. NIPOST has showed itself as an institution that is not ready to provide for its pensioners. What is happening now could create room for corruption because civil servants who are still in service may decide to loot the treasury because of the fear of facing what retirees go through after service,” Omenazu said.
He called on government at all levels to harmonise pensioners’ salaries and establish a system that would ensure that every pensioner is paid before the end of the month. According to him, the worst thing a government can do to its citizens is to sabotage them economically by refusing to pay their pension.
A public analyst and social commentator, Mr. Chuka Onyema, described a situation where old men and women are always protesting against unpaid pension arrears as a testimony that there was no credible system in the country. He said other countries have good schemes for their senior citizens because they respect them.
Onyema added that it was shameful for government to look the other way while those who served the country in the past continue to suffer.
“It is only in Nigeria that old men and women are told to queue in the sun for verification exercises that would not yield any positive result. Some of the people subjecting the pensioners to this cruelty were in primary school when these senior citizens were serving the nation,” Onyema noted.
When contacted, an official in the Public Relations Department of NIPOST, who pleaded anonymity, asked Ojukwu to send his complains to the office where he retired.
He said, “It is not possible for me to have the data of all retirees and the status of their payment. But I know that the management of NIPOST is addressing the issue generally.”
Recently, a NIPOST pensioner, Mrs. Salifatu Adetona, slumped in Lagos during one of the union’s numerous protests to drive home the need for government to take them seriously. Adetona was among the poor pensioners that took to the streets to show their grievance against the non-payment of their 69-month pension arrears.
By Chukwudi Akasike
Culled From PUNCH
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