By Patrick Ochei
The Chairman of the Bureau for State Pension and retired Permanent Secretary of Government House and Protocol, Sir Edwin Ogidi-Gbagbaje has advised members of the fourth estate of the realm under the platform of the Indigenous Correspondents’ Chapel of Delta State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), to as much as possible avoid distortion of information as they carry out their statutory obligations as journalists.
Ogidi-Gbagbaje gave this advice when the chapel paid him a courtesy visit at his office in Asaba, to get clarification on some knotty issues of pension and to also seek partnership with the Bureau in terms of regular access to information from the office.
The Chairman who happily received the group, saw the meeting as an ample opportunity to share his ideas on how he has structured his operation in order to achieve success for the pensioners vis-a-vis the government.
According to him, “There is no reason why a pensioner should not receive his pension as and when due. Some of them retired and became sick; while majority face myriads of challenges if they didn’t have any tangible thing to fall back on after retirement.
“I will be the happiest person to see that issues of pension arrears are sorted out by government in record time. Sincerely, there is no moral or legal justification to deny them their right to pension or excessively delay them from getting paid. They don’t deserve to beg for their rights.
“However, there are reasons for these challenges in the past, which majorly was orchestrated by inadequate funding. Those persons that are conversant with the history of contributory pension will understand the reason for backlog. Because it takes huge amount to reduce or clear off a large chunk of pension arrears, the Bureau is therefore taking it systematically. Payments are usually done on the basis of first come first serve, except on exceptional cases of sickness.
“This again is the more reason why pensioners must begin to process their pensions six months before retirement as enshrined in the law. But in most cases, you find retirees processing their pensions months and years after retirement. In some other cases, it is their fellow civil servants that create bottlenecks for them. But oftentimes, they put the blame on the Bureau.
“We will not under my watch, deliberately delay pensions. We have a system of operation already structured, to ensure that as soon as we receive a retiree’s papers, we enlist him or her for payment. It’s turn by turn except on cases of serious ailment and then the junior workers whose pensions are small amounts; on this basis we quickly schedule them for payment.
“This government is doing so much already to ensure that backlogs are cleared. I look forward to seeing it happen; and I tell you I will be the happiest person to see that all pension arrears are cleared off our system. I am one of them, I was only fortunate to have retired as a Permanent Secretary”, Ogidi-Gbagbaje explained.
Earlier in his speech, the Chairman of Indigenous Correspondents’ Chapel, Comrade Kenneth Orusi had congratulated Sir Ogidi-Gbagbaje on his well deserved appointment after his meritorious retirement from the civil service.
He reeled out to him the challenges faced by pensioners which were often reported to journalists as purveyors of information.
Orusi reminded him that the position he holds as the Board Chairman is held in trust for the people, just as journalists represent the voice of the people, hence the visit to get clarification on pension matters and also to partner the office for regular information updates, which would in turn be disseminated to the public.
Moreover, he noted that Sir Ogidi-Gbagbaje is transparency and integrity proven and so has a high character rating that would do good to public office and for the benefit of the people concerned, adding that “When the righteous is in power, the people rejoice”.
