Succour To Pensioners

By

Edwin Olofu

adakole002@yahoo.com

In the beginning the administration of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau never hides its intention that human development will be the cardinal focus of his government. Immediately he was declared winner in the 2003, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau established a transition committee that examined his Manifesto and promises with a view to drafting an action plan to be implemented from 2003 to 2007 human development encompassing societal re- orientation, Shariah and governance reforms, special mass food production, water supply and education as well as infrastructure development.

This was received with mix – feeling because the concept which was relatively new then was misperceived by many, apparently because of the old style of governance. Opposition led by the people’s Democratic Party (PDP) took advantage of the people who were ignorant of the phrase human development by criticizing the vision vehemently. Arguing that it was a deliberate ploy by the Shekarau government to divert public fund and share to every supporters. Although Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau kept on emphasizing that it was not the intension instead the motive was to empower the people of the state thereby improving their lot. It was viewed from a negative perspective as if the government will abandoned the problem of health, perennial acute shortage of water and other social basic amenities. On the other hand, some business men in the state are of the opinion that investing huge amount of money on people who can not play any active role in the economy is a waste of the meager resources the state has. Arguing that such fund would have been allocated for the creation of opportunities for self employment of the jobless people roaming about on the streets of the state, some people in the state are accusing the governor of favouring the pensioners because he himself is also a retiree.

Nevertheless, the Kano state government depending heavily on the federal allocation to survive because statistic shows that the state government can only generate 10 percent of it required revenues internally, therefore remained one of the poorest state of the federation. Took a giant step and cleared a huge backlog of gratuity, monthly pension arrears, final death pension and move value of all those pensioners that were not paid from 1979 amounting to over N5 billion. Other payments were for the monthly pension arrears of 12.5% and 15% pension increases affected by the government. THE WEEK learnt that the Shekarau administration had equally introduced the New Contributory Pension Scheme as contained in the Kano state pension and Gratuity Law 2006. This scheme provides for a defined benefit to the retiree.  The employer (government) contributes 17% while the employee contributes 8% of his/her emolument making a total contribution of 25% of the emolument of the civil servant. This effort by the Shekarau administration to get rid of the backlog of pensioners entitlement has received kudos from public commentators and other stake holders because of the fact that even the Almighty Federal government under the leadership of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo could not meet the obligation of paying pensioners despite the huge amount of money accrued to the federal government as revenues since 1999 neither could it pay the outstanding N70 billion. However on the contrary the Shekarau government has committed more than 8% of its total receipt of N170, 492, 249, 002:35 from May 2003 to December 2007 t this end the Kano state government has released   N13billion for the payment of retirement benefit from May 2003 to December 2007. This amount was for the payment of benefits to over 30,000 beneficiaries. Similarly Shekarau interest on prompt payment of retirement benefits is not even enough rather he took another bold step when he appointed at least 17 pensioners to lead sensitive government establishments even the current Secretary to the State government is a pensioner. The love for pensioners prompted them when their contributed out of their pittance and purchased nomination form worth N5 million for Shekarau to seek a second term in office again Shekarau tireless effort to come to the rescue of pensioners, encouraged them again and their national counterpart to honour Shekarau with a meritorious award in Abuja last month. Apart from the consideration on pension the government did not neglect infrastructure development hence it has carried out some road construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation projects in the metropolitan areas covering over 90 kilometers and over 70 roads, bridges and other civil engineering projects in the rural areas.  Defending the position of government on the huge amount government has so far expended on the pensioners, Alhaji Ado Kurawa who is the Director General Research and Documentation Kano state government House, told THE WEEK that the decision of government to commit huge amount of money for pension payments was in line with the administration policy on human development. In his words “the injection of the amount in pension was a deliberate policy of government geared towards re-inflating the economy of the state because this would enable them to be involved in economic activities that have the potential of benefiting them, and the society at large this investment is a mark of the commitment of the governor to the restoration of social harmony, this, has earned him the title of emancipator of the pensioners. Kurawa defended.