Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised the President Bola Tinubu government for delaying the payment of pensions and gratuities to retirees.
He said many elderly citizens struggled to meet their basic needs and access healthcare because they have not received their entitlements.
In a statement, Obi shared a touching experience he had with a retired civil servant in Nsukka, Enugu State.
While visiting Shanahan College of Nursing Sciences, he noticed an elderly woman trying to speak with him. Although people around attempted to silence her, he insisted on hearing her out.
The woman introduced herself as a retired civil servant, who had dedicated her working years to serving the country. She told Obi that she had not received her pension for some time.
Even more heartbreaking was the fact that she had been hospitalised for over a week without any money to pay for food, let alone medical bills.
“I felt a surge of anger and pity,” Obi said, adding: “Anger at leaders like me, who, out of greed and insatiable desperation for material acquisition, have made life a living hell for others by denying them the fruits of their labour. And then pity for the poor elderly woman, and many others like her whose painful stories may never be heard.”
The former Anambra State governor urged the government to make retirees’ welfare a priority, even as he emphasised the need for compassion and humanity in leadership.
“I have said it before, and I still maintain, that any government that withholds the pensions and gratuities of our senior citizens in their vulnerable years is wicked.
“As a governor, I inherited and paid off over N30 billion in pensions and gratuities accumulated over the years, because I understood the pain the elderly citizens were going through,” he stated.
