Nigeria Content Online

The Nigerian Union
of Pensioners (NUP), Ondo State chapter, yesterday faulted the recent
biometric enrollment for pensioners across the country, saying it is a
pointer to the fact that “Nigeria is a failed state”.

The pensioners’
outburst is coming on the heels of the directive given by the Permanent
Secretary from the office of the Head of Service of the federation,
that all pensioners who were not available during the biometric
exercise should report to Abuja for further enrollment. The pensioners,
however, blamed the office of the Head of Service for the shortcomings
experienced during the biometric registration, stressing that the
office lacked the technical skill to carry out such a programme.

The State Chairman
of the NUP, Eni Olotu, told his colleagues yesterday in Akure that the
action of the Head of Service was totally unfair to the pensioners. Mr
Olotu, who doubles as the Chairman of the south-west Zone of the union,
lamented that 2,000 out of the 6,000 pensioners in the state were not
registered during the biometric exercise. He noted that the inability
of the pensioners to be registered was as a result of the lack of
enough manpower and equipment brought to the state during the exercise.

“During the
registration exercise, the people who carried out the assignment came
with just two computers, which was not enough for the pensioners in the
state,” he said.

“Despite that many
of our pensioners came from a long distance for the exercise, those
posted to the state still messed up. One of the laptops being used for
the exercise was stolen. So, do you now blame our members for the head
of service’s ineptitude? It is not true that our members were not
available for the exercise. Some whose data were captured during the
exercise also have one problem on the other.”

Pondering options

The Chairman said
the directive that pensioners who were not registered go to Abuja for
another round of registration was not acceptable to the union.

“We vehemently
reject the directive that our members who were not registered should
come to Abuja. We are totally against it,” he said.

“Why should aged
people between the ages of 67 and 75 be asked to come to Abuja for
registration exercise? It is totally unfair on our members. How do you
expect people who will not collect more than N1,000 every month to now
go to Abuja?”

Mr Olotu also
pointed out that the union might be forced to protest if the issue was
not urgently resolved. “It has again been proven that Nigeria is a
failed state. There is nothing which government can do well. We have
served the country meritoriously and deserve to be treated well. The
government is only giving us our right and nothing more; it is not a
favour or privilege,” Mr Olotu said.

He hinted that the south-west zone of the union would deliberate on
the issue later in Ibadan to decide the next line of action.