Former Secretary to the Government of Imo State (SGI), Sir Jude Ejiogu has assured of his willingness to clear all accumulated gratuity and pension arears to enable the “Senior Citizens” live longer, rather than having regrets for serving their state when he becomes the Governor of Imo State in 2019.
Sir Ejiogu also promised to ensure that salaries and other entitlements due for civil servants in the state were paid as at when due, and wondered why some state Chief Executives treat workers’ constitutional benefits with kid gloves, adding that if his father as retired school Headmaster was treated the same way by past governments, he may not have trained his children well.
The former Chief of Scribe of Imo State made this promise while interacting with some stakeholders in the state, he maintained that in as much as the state does not depend on federal government for her survival, there was need for all stakeholders to come together with their ideas towards reviving and revamping the economy of the state for optimal productivity, while describing stakeholders as people with the needed experiences to reposition the state.
He said, “I feel very bad and astonish to watch some state Governors behaving as if payment of pension arrears and gratuity is a favour to the beneficiaries, let me tell you my brothers and sisters, pension is a very crucial money in the lives of our Senior Citizens. This is what they laboured for under the harsh sun and in the rain. Therefore, anyone whether Governors or agents of government playing with pension funds is not only insulting God but the person is like a time bomb waiting to explode”
Let me inform you briefly, because you are not aware of this revelation. I am who I am today because of my father’s pension. I remember on a Tuesday morning when the then Government in Imo State paid a great chunk of my father’s pension arrears as a retired Teacher, during the period, I was still warming up to become something in life as the last son, this pension paid to my father, Late Pa Alfred Ebolukwu Ejiogu aided my journey to the United States of America (USA), where I studied Monetary Economics and Finance at Lincoln University/University of Saint Thomas, Missouri and Houston respectively. So if my father’s pension could make me who I am today, then why should government or anyone withhold its payment”.
According to him, “may woe betide me and my generation if after God had given me this opportunity to clinge as the Governor of Imo State, and I find it very difficult to pay pension, gratuity and salary as at when due. Under my watch as Governor, there will be no room for civil servants and pensioners crying or trecking under the harsh sun or in the heavy rain to receive what they have laboured for. If I may ask you, what is life when your father and mother who should be taken care of are seen crying and suffering after they had sacrificed their better part of their lives to the development of our society? May God punish me and my generation if the wages of labourers under my watch will be mindlessly ignored. I cannot do it alone, but through your prayers. I make a vow today that our lives must change to good when you must have made me your Governor in 2019” he averred.
Sir Ejiogu therefore charged Imo people to wake up to the occasion and take their destiny in their hands, rather than keeping quiet and believing that all would be well one day, when they contribute little or nothing to select those that govern them.
