By Victor Akinkuolie, Ado-Ekiti
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The Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Southwest chapter, has threatened to sue Southwest Governors for reneging on their promises to implement the consequential adjustment to retirees in their respective states.
The retirees gave the governors up till the end of October to implement the new minimum wage, failing which they will take them to court.
The NUP Southwest leaders spoke yesterday during its bimonthly regional meeting held in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State capital.
Briefing newsmen on the contentious issue, the NUP Zonal Public Relations Officer, Dr. Olusegun Abatan, regretted that the governors had defaulted in the payment of gratuities and pensions to retirees.
Abatan, who is the NUP Secretary in Oyo State, regretted that the government have defaulted in implementation of 33.4 percent and consequential adjustment to retirees.
He said: “The Southwest has always been regarded as zone of progressives, but it is an irony that a zone that is respected as progressive could be lagging behind in the welfare of workers and pensioners .
“The non -compliance with constitutional provision that when workers’ salaries are increased, then that of pensioners must follow suit has been a matter of concern to all of us.
“The 33.4 percent pension increase done in 2010 has not been implemented in most of these states . Out of six, only Lagos and Ondo have implemented it while Oyo, Ekiti, Osun and Ogun States have failed in this regard and the body languages of our governors show that they are not ready to implement this.
“In 2018, there was another increase in workers salaries with adjustment from N18,000 to N30,000. There was consequential adjustment for senior workers and the constitution said pensioners too must benefit and the circulars have been made available to states by the federal government.
“We give the governments of Ogun, Osun Oyo, and Ekiti States till the end of October, 2021 within which they should address the consequential adjustment to pensioners, failing which we shall take them to court”.
The NUP spokesperson regretted how Governor Kayode Fayemi had allegedly asked the pensioners to go and get their gratuities in the capital market and forfeit 45 percent of what were due to them .
He said the claim adduced by Fayemi that he resorted to this because Ekiti has no capacity to pay was spurious, saying it was tantamount to “trying to give our members a poisoned chalice”.