By Abba-Eku Onyekachi
The Senatoe representing Enugu-East at the National Assembly, Sen. Chukwu, Chizoba Kelvin, has made a case for the protection of the interest of pensioners in Nigeria.
The legislator spoke through a motion titled: “The Need to Address the Travails of Pensioners, Their Next-of-Kins and the Deceased Relatives over Unpaid Pensions, Gratuities and Other Entitlements”, was moved by him on the floor of the senate Tuesday.
Condemning in strong terms, what he described as dastardly act against the country’s senior citizens, as well as man’s inhumanity to his fellow man, he noted that due to bureaucratic bottlenecks and endemic corruption in the payment process in the system, the situation, he went on, has subjected many pensioners to abject poverty and penury, with some dying in queues of protracted and never – ending verification exercises that yield little or no result, whatsoever.
The senator further attributed the ugly incident to improper keeping of records by unscrupulous officials who demand for different documents and similar verification exercise regularly.
He also noted that the administration of pension funds have been enmeshed in corruption over the years with some public officers, institutions and even banks and other private sectors too.
He noted that unless the pensioners are treated properly, the country is unwittingly encouraging the propensity for the civil servants to be corrupt, saying that the career for civil service is no more attractive, as the senior citizens are treated shabbily.
The motion received support from Senators Amos Yohana, (Adamawa north), Ibrahim Dankwoba, (Gombe north), among others.
They spoke at length on the need for the motion to be treated with utmost seriousness.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio hailed and commended the mover of the motion for his observations, even as he spoke at length on the need to effect improvement on the living conditions of the country’s senior citizens.
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