GOV OKOROCHA, CIVIL SERVICE AND PENSION CONUNDRUM
Greetings brethren! I’m immensely glad we all made it to this juncture in spite of the fathomless hurdles that beseeched us the previous days. You might lack words at a particular circumstance, but never you hesitate to exclaim “Thank you Lord for keeping me alive” at every given time irrespective of the circumstance you may find yourself.
Frankly the last time I checked, most of the plights being faced by the greater percentage of the teeming Nigerians were attributable to ignorance. Yes; most Nigerians are currently ignorant owing to various factors ranging from illiteracy to lack of reading habit, apathy as regards listening to news or quest for knowledge, lack of exposure, inferiority complex, inability to ask question(s) when necessary/needed as well as the ongoing “I Too Know (ITK)” syndrome salvaging the citizenry, just to mention but a few.
You may tape my words if you wish or you might as well document the written ones as it pleases your majesty, but I want you to note that my prime interest in my writing/activism career is to appraise facts at all times and that is why the title of this very column reads “Fancy Facts”; ‘Fancy’ simply means special, unusual, or elaborate.
Lest I forget; today’s theme is strictly on the Imo civil service and the ongoing pension conundrum in the said state. Thus pardon me for the initial digression, though it was consequential and rational. It is pertinent to acknowledge that issues relating to problems faced by civil servants and pensioners are not only peculiar to Imo State; rather, Nigeria at large. But that of Imo angered my pen and the reason is obvious; of course whatever that affects the state affects me directly like I rightly stated in the last edition, because that is where I’m coming from – Imo is my heritage.
Please I wish to begin with history regarding the theme before us. If you could recall vividly, then you wouldn’t hesitate to agree with me that the moment Gov Rochas Okorocha stepped into the Douglas House in 2011, the civil servants and the pensioners were his priority; my dad who is an Imo pensioner can testify to this fact; though right now the old man is not happy.
Therein, the governor assured Imo workers that they would be paid as and when due provided he remained the governor of the great state, and he fulfilled his promise to everybody’s greatest surprise including myself. He didn’t stop at that; he thought it wise to revisit the cases of all the pensioners who had not received their pensions many years prior to his assumption to duty as the governor of the state. In regard to this, he cleared all the pension arrears, which my dad benefitted from. We should not also forget in a hurry that he was the first governor to implement the newest minimum wage.
To be frank with you; this was one singular fact, beside the existing free education policy, that attracted me to Rochas Okorocha as an individual. I instantly developed an unalloyed passion for his person because I was of the view that the Imo workers cum pensioners were really faced with untold hardship prior to his emergence as the state’s governor.
One of the retired headmasters in Imo State who I was opportune to have a one-on-one talk with told me wholeheartedly that he preferred addressing Gov Okorocha as “An Administrator” rather than “A Governor”. When asked why; he candidly said that such statement was informed by the fact that the said leader acts like an astute administrator going by the way he had handled all the pension matters that awaited him.
Similarly, that of my mum – Mrs Vero Nwaozor (Nee Egbuna) is what baffled my person most; someone who meritoriously retired from the civil service as a Health Personnel since March 2014 but yet to receive her pension arrears coupled with gratuity never ceases to eulogize Gov Okorocha even till date. The kind of passion my beloved mum has for the governor is so extreme that at a point I thought she had been charmed by the man in question, not until she told me the sole reason for her fanaticism. She disclosed to me that the treatment she received in civil service between 2011 and 2014 before she retired was so overwhelming that it could not be compared with the treatment she got during the several years that preceded the aforesaid period; she added that unless I was a civil servant, I wouldn’t know how a worker feels if he/she receives his/her salary as and when due.
Right now the heat is on; every worker/pensioner, excluding my mum who remains optimistic, is seemingly disappointed with the government. In view of this scenario, I wish to clear the air based on my understanding. In line with the recent interaction I had with a staunch affiliate to the Douglas House, it seems the governor is into what could be best described as “Civil Service cum Pension Matters Reform.” If you have been observant, you would have noticed that a lot of anomalies had been taking place in the Imo likewise other states’ civil service and pension matters.
The most worrisome part of the said anomaly is the issue of “Ghost workers/pensioners” syndrome. It is no longer news that over the years, the various workers’ payrolls have been filled with names of non-existent workers. Even most of them who were meant to retire years ago are still receiving salaries. Pathetically, most workers no longer receive their Leave allowance; something that’s supposed to be statutory has been made to become a privilege. Some persons would be comfortably sitting on other persons’ monies without minding the law of karma. What impunity!
In the same vein, that of the pensioners cannot be overemphasized; the names of most of the pensioners are still on the workers’ payrolls, and the excesses are invariably going into the purses of those at the head. That is why, in any reform process, it is often the heads that kick against it.
It is imperative for our people to be duly informed so that they wouldn’t misinterpret/misunderstand the ongoing process, which I personally think will go a long way to restructure the state’s civil service as well as pension matters in its entirety. This would take us back to the second paragraph of this piece where I stated that several problems most Nigerians are presently facing are as a result of ignorance. Since most of them don’t listen to news neither do they bring time to read newspapers or magazines, we ought to employ a device through which they would be thoroughly sensitized.
However, the issue of concession is what I would urge the government to reconsider critically especially when it has to do with the health sector, which deals directly with the people’s lives. If we must concession the management of any health parastatal; that is, if the proposed action has become uncompromising, we’re expected to be holistically careful as well as mindful of the body we’re leasing them to. A very sensitive and fragile sector like health requires nothing but adequate pampering. Hence, we must look before we leap.
Most importantly, the government should endeavor to carry the affected workers who are already preoccupied with premonitory anxieties along, so that there would be harmony at the long run. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.
Now that the government has assured the pensioners that they would be paid in no distant time, I enjoin them to continue praying for the government rather than unleashing curses on their leaders. The government must also hasten up in its ongoing reform with a view to ensuring that the pensioners experience moment of psychological rest again.
All the same; I sincerely wish everyone success, but we must try by all means to distance ourselves from deceit. A popular Igbo adage says “Atowa uto, ewepu awuwo”; literally it means, if a relationship is going smoothly, the parties involved ought to endeavour not to invite any element of deceit. Think about it!
COMR FRED DOC NWAOZOR
(The Media Ambassador)
Executive Director, Centre for Counselling, Research
& Career Development - Owerri
_____________________________________
frednwaozor@gmail.com
+2348028608056
Twitter: @fdnnwaozor
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