Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom has offered apology to both serving and retired workers in the state for the inability of successive state governments to end the inability to pay benefits to retirees and pensions to it’s former workers.
The governor spoke at the official flag off ceremony, signaling the formal commencement of the Contributory Pension Scheme in Benue State on Monday.
This ceremony is coming seven months after the Contributory Pension Commission was inaugurated.
In an emotion-laden voice, Governor Ortom bemoaned the suffering of retired government workers who are owed their pensions and gratuities and have had to go through unbearable conditions, pointing out that with the commencement of the scheme, the plight of retirees is in sight.
In his words: “I therefore apologize on behalf of our government as well as previous administrations in the state to our workers both serving and retired for the inability to find a lasting solution to the pension problem before now.”
The governor recalled that one of the most unpleasant realities his administration met when he assumed duty as governor of Benue State in 2015 was the huge pension liabilities he inherited from previous administrations in the State.
The Principal Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Nathaniel Ikyur, in a statement quoted his boss as saying, “the pension problem was competing for attention with the humanitarian crisis arising from the perennial herder’s attacks as well as other challenges of development and governance. Sadly, the challenges pilled with the huge shortfalls from our revenue sources, from Federal and Internal.”
He noted that even when his administration tried to grapple with the difficult choice of which challenges to prioritize, “the occasional demonstration on the streets by the elderly retired workers in pursuit of their retirement benefits served as a constant reminder that although there were serious other challenges of governance and development to face, the pension problem of the State was one issue that our Administration must find solutions to.”
He regretted that even though governmnet devised ways to address the pension problem through structured payments, it “proved hopelessly inadequate. The more we released funds for the settlement of the pension liabilities, the more the liabilities grew.”
Ortom noted that to end the crises faced by retirees, the state has come to the conclusion that the Contributory Pension Scheme is the best solution to the State’s pension problem and asked workers to embrace the Contributory Pension Scheme.
The givernor caled on all serving and retired staff to see the Contributory Pension Scheme as the necessary panacea to the State’s pension ailment, stressing that in the long run, it is expected to be a win-win solution to all stake holders as those who are enrolling into the Scheme now can look forward to a more secure financial future on retirement.
For those who have already retired but are owed their retirement benefits, the governor hinted that government would be availed the opportunity to borrow from the accumulated pension funds to defray some of the pension liabilities adding that the State Government would be offered the window of opportunity to also borrow from the pension fund to provide critical infrastructure with well-structured repayment patterns and means.
Governor Ortom announced that his administration would create a Special Fund to be invested in interest yielding instruments as one of the measures to raise funds to pay for some of the Contributory Pension Scheme costs and to also pay the entitlements of workers exempted from the Scheme when they retire or to repay debts taken to defray pension liabilities.
Murtala Modibbo, Senior Manager, States Operations of the National Pension Commission, who represented the Acting Director of PENCOM while pledging the agency’s preparedness to partner with state’s to ease the pains retirees go through, asked the Benue state government to engage in public enlightenment campaign to sensitise the workers.
Chairman of the Benue state Pension Commission, Terna Ahua eralier in his welcome address decried the non payment of pension and gratuities which has brought untold hardship on pensioners in the state, saying with the commencement of this scheme, it will bring an end to the sufferings of the state retirees.
The Pension Reform Law stipulates that the employer, government in this case, shall contribute an additional ten percent (10%) of the monthly emoluments of each worker enrolled into the Scheme while the workers are to contribute eight percent (8%) of their monthly emoluments into the workers retirement savings. This is no doubt a painful but necessary sacrifice that we all must make in order to overcome and put behind us the problem of huge pension liabilities with its accompanying pain and misery to unpaid retired staff.