By Omachi Usman Arome
As present government of Kogi State continue to deliver more dividends of democracy to the people of the state, ranging from the giant strides in Infrastructural revolution e.g construction of Roads Network, Health Care delivery, Security Education, Job Employment, Empowerment and many others.
There are unnoticed area that the governor has greatly done very well in the last seven years which is Pension payment. The success story of Gov. Bello’s administration in the areas of pension payment cannot be overemphasised at this critical time that many states in the country are finding it difficult to pay monthly salary, Kogi State government is combining the both, Salary/Pension. Despite paucity of funds, rising recurrent expenditure and the current economic climate across the country, the State Government has made continuous and prompt monthly payments of pension a priority to ensure retirees access their retirement benefits as soon as possible, aside prompt payment of monthly salary.
This is a testimony that governor Bello acknowledged that retirees’ labour and sacrifice while in the public service and which had contributed immensely to the development of the state are not in vain.
Since assuming office, Gov. Bello has consistently taken the payment of pension and gratuity as priority.
However, unknowing to many in the state, Gov. Yahaya Bello administration inherited the backlogs of unpaid pension and gratuities from 1999 to 2016.
So far, the administration has cleared over three thousand and six hundred (3600) case files and all between 1999 to 2016.
It’s on records, that previous administration in the state before governor Yahaya Bello have not taken pension payment seriously which created a chaotic scene within the system and has greatly affected many retirees in the state until the coming of governor Bello.
The governor’s magnanimity to secure the future of its greatest assets , which is public service, Gov. Bello has consistently prioritised pension payment in the annual state budgets.
The state government under the present administration of Gov. Bello, usually expended between 900m to 1.2 billion to pension payment either monthly or quarterly.
Now, in Kogi State, both the civil servants and pensioneers get alerts at almost the same time towards the end of every month.
The present administration of Gov. Bello must be commended for paying attention to our past heroes that have serve the state diligently.
–Omachi Usman Arome wrote this from Abuja
