Former Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi has disclosed that the most challenging moment for his as governor was when the Nigerian Union of Pensioners(NUP) rejected the plan we put before them to defray the backlog of gratuity.
He explained that “we had entered a partnership with one of the prominent financial institutions to give these pensioners discounted promissory notes that would defray that, but there would be a commission by the institution providing the money “
Fayemi ,who served out his four year second term on October15,2022 said the incident was not only shocking but surprising since,it was a major opportunity to tackle the age long challenge of defraying backlog of pension and gratuity.
The former governor said “the greatest Challenge and shock I had In the four years of my second tenure was the day the Ekiti State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners rejected the plan we put before them to defray the backlog of gratuity.
He said “there had been a backlog of gratuities running into N12billion by the time I came and we then entered a partnership with one of the prominent financial institutions to give these pensioners discounted promissory notes that would defray that, but there would be a commission by the institution providing the money. And we explained to them that, look, your gratuity, for example, is N5million and the provider of this service will take between 10 and 15 per cent commission and you will get between N3.5m to N4m or thereabouts, instead of N5million.
“It is still better for you to take this sum, rather than to keep waiting endlessly till when the government will have N5m cash to give you. Yes, you are losing some money, but this N4m million you’re getting is cash at hand, not N5m that you’re expecting but have not seen and that you may not see if – God forbids – you die before the money eventually comes to you.
“We’ve concluded this arrangement. Unfortunately, the pensioners eventually refused the offer and lost a major opportunity. When you look at the inflationary trend in the country, N4m cash four years ago will probably be worth just N3m now if not less than that.” Fayemi lamented .