Retiring Nipost Workers Fret over Pensions

Palpable fear has gripped some top management of Nigeria Postal Service (Nipost) who are due to retire soon following the inability of the federal government to pay their colleagues who have left Nipost after years of meritorious service, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report.

The staffers fear they may join over 6,000 others still waiting for their pensions since 2011.

The pension arrears of the retired officers have risen to N3 billion following the inability of the federal government to pay the pensioners.

Some aggrieved pensioners described government’s inability to pay them “as a sin against humanity and inexcusable”

According to investigations, the management of Nipost calculated the entitlements of all the pensioners and forwarded it to the office of the accountant-general of the federation for payment, but the AGF is yet to pay the pensioners their entitlements.

Yashim Isa Bityong, deputy postmaster general, Territorial Administration, told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek in Lagos that the federal ministry of Finance had blamed the delay on budget deficit.

It would be recalled that Alhaji Mori Baba, postmaster-general of the federation had on February, 2013, told the protesting pensioners that they may soon enjoy the benefits of their labour because the federal government had promised to pay their entitlements.

He said: “We eventually signed an agreement on January 27 on the payment of their claims. The figure is about N1.7 billion and the Office of the Accountant-General is working towards paying them as soon as possible.”

Baba said the Federal Government had accepted to clear the backlog of arrears, saying the problem of non-payment of regular pension was not restricted to Nipost.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek recalled that placard carrying pensioners had protested in front of the General Post Office, Marina, Lagos on January 8 over unpaid pension arrears.  Since then there have been series of protests at different post offices nationwide.

 Bityong said: “The federal ministry blamed the delay on budget deficit which they have not been able to mop up funds to settle the pensioners. We know these people as staff who had worked with us; we met some of them when we assumed work as Nipost staff. So, when this kind of thing happens to them we sympathize with them and feel uneasy because of our own fate.

“So people feel that those protesting were just junior staff. No! There are senior ones who stand at their back. Some are senior because of their age, some because of the position they were occupying. Our former post-master generals are involved, deputy post-master generals, assistants, senior assistants, chief officers are all involved. But those we see on the streets are those who could come out to agitate for their rights.

Bityong added that each time the protestors knock on their door, Nipost management would always welcome, “Although some of them have become militant about it”.