Pensioners cry out over non-inclusion in minimum wage c’ttee …Loses 1,500 members to current hardship

— To protest naked in Abuja if not included in c’ttee

—As some Enugu retirees received N450 monthly as pension

NIGERIAN Pensioners on Thursday decried the non-inclusion of their members in the newly constituted Minimum Wage Tripartite committee.

The Pensioners under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, (NUP), said that they have lost about 1,500 of their members in recent times as a result of the hardship and high cost of living in the country.

Fielding question on whether the union has suffered any casualty as a result of the hardship in the country, it said, “Let me say this, we have casualties every day. The casualties arising from the maltreatment of pensioners in Nigeria, we have now gone into 1,500. Just about last week, we traveled to Enugu to bury one of the staff. We know that he perished out of hunger. It’s in our power to distribute food to pensioners in Nigeria, we don’t have the resources.

“In Nigeria, government doesn’t think about the poor people, they only think about themselves, otherwise how can a pensioner in Enugu receive as low as four hundred and fifty naira?”.

They also lamented that their members in some states, especially in Enugu State collect as low as N450 monthly as pension.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, Thursday, the President of NUP, Comrade Godwin Abumisi, in a prepared text he read, said that the Senior Citizens would embark on protest in Abuja if the Federal Government failed to include Pensioners in the Minimum Wage Tripartite Committee.

He said, “I want to say it clear and I want you to write it, I am going to lead Nigerian pensioners naked. I mean naked. When we are going to protest, we are going to go naked on the streets. Write down this so that the world will see it, Nigerian pensioners are going to demonstrate naked. If they like, let them arrest us on why we go naked, are you mad? And we will say, we are mad. We have reached a situation where we can now say, we are mad.”

He further said, “For records, the NUP is the only legally recognized body and voice of the entire civil and para-military pensioners in Nigeria.  When the news of constituting the long-awaited Tripartite National Minimum Wage Review Committee was announced by the Federal Government, it was applauded by the NUP, with the high hope that they would be represented in such a high-powered committee to offer their voice to the negotiation, as well as make a case for their members, bearing in mind that pensioners are workers in retirement who go to the same market for their daily needs.

Moreso, we feel that the pensioners’ union should be carried along during negotiations on the matters that bother on their members. Unfortunately and regrettably too, our hope of being represented in the Committee was dashed as the name of NUP was visibly omitted from the membership list.

“And this is the reason why we are here today to protest and register our displeasure and dissatisfaction with the constitution of the committee which has undermined the relevance and authority of the union (NUP), using the instrumentality of the press.

“Some may argue that the interest of the NUP as a member of the Organized Labour family would be sufficiently catered for by the representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the committee.

“But regrettably, this has not always been the case as previous experiences have shown that pensioners had always been left out in the series of wage reviews and negotiations to their fate, not until their local union (NUP) will have to struggle overtime to press for a corresponding upward review of pensions for their members.