•Ex-NITEL staff send SOS to FG: ‘Pay us our 35-month arrears’
From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), enjoyed by Nigerians today rose from the ashes of Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL). It was one of the blue-chip companies that ruled and dominated the Nigerian communications space between 1985 and 2001 before it was privatised.
However, the staff that enjoyed the glamour and privileges of working in that organisation are dying of hunger and starvation presently. Last week, the workers, now old and weak, trooped out on the streets of Abuja to beg for the payment of their 35 months pension.
Most of them died because of hunger, sickness and homelessness. They could not afford food, medication and shelter. The ex-workers begged authorities concerned to pay them their entitlements to enable them eat and survive.
Godwin Alajemba told Daily Sun that they had followed every process to get paid but all their efforts came to naught: “Even as we gather here, today, we got a sad news that we lost one of our members last week called Gwari Gana. On daily basis we keep getting reports like this and you discover that some of them died for not being able to afford drugs of N2,000, N3,000 and you know how expensive drugs are right now.
“If they were able to take care of themselves and eat well they don’t even need some of these medications. Apart from that, they still have dependants because many of us were actually disengaged, not retired and they don’t have other jobs they are doing.
“They have dependants they take care of. Some of them are living in rented apartments. How do they cope? By the time they pay them, how many bags of cement will they be able to buy? The more they owe us the more it (the money) keeps depreciating and it becomes useless to members.
“We are begging the government. We are not in a position to ask for interest on the money but the government should give us the money the way it’s let us see what we can purchase with it. It’s a plea. It’s something that we have actually laboured for. Give us what belongs to us and on time so that we can keep managing ourselves. That is just the message
“But we were advised by the Ministry of Finance to write to Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) attaching this letter (flagging the letter). PTAD should escalate the matter back to them so that they would have something to work with.”
Another ex-staff, Austin Ifedinezi, said: “Most of our members don’t have strength to come. They are willing to come but some of them don’t have transport fare. Some of them don’t have the strength. They are ill. They are sick. Even if you go to carry them they cannot sustain the stress. That’s just the issue. We don’t have that strength even to stay under the sun
“What we are asking them (government) is just to pay us what we are due. It was 84 months but when Buhari came he reduced it to 36. Since the present administration came it paid for one month only.
“We are now asking for 35 months. All these increases and salary adjustments are the things we are asking have lost value.”
In a letter addressed to the Minister of Finance, the ex-workers were asking for: “Payment of outstanding 35 months’ arrears, entitlements of the deceased colleagues, payment of benefits to the next of kin of their deceased colleagues.”
The pensioners were also seeking for the review and adjustment of pension to reflect current economic realities and the payment of the approved 28 per cent wage increment for pensioners.
NITEL was established on January 1, 1985, following the merger of the Telecommunications Department of the defunct P&T and the Nigerian External Telecommunications (NET). Prior to the merger, staff from P&T and NET signed a “Pension for Life” agreement, stipulating that after serving a minimum of 10 years and retiring, whether voluntarily or compulsorily, they were entitled to a lifetime pension, calculated pro-rata.
MTEL was formed in 1996 to provide cellular services to Nigerians. NITEL and MTEL were thriving entities, with 750,000 lines installed and 520,000 functional. Later, all staff of NITEL and MTEL were compulsorily disengaged to facilitate privatisation. Their gratuities were paid and their pension covered for three-and-a-half years.