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14 years after liquidation, ex-Airways worker on throes of death
- Seek N78bn severance pay disbursement
Over 14 years after President Olusegun Obasanjo surprisingly liquidated Nigeria Airways, workers of the defunct carrier are seeking urgent disbursement of the already approved N78bn being their severance payment as the rank of the workers is daily depleted by death occasioned by inability to procure medication for their various ailments.
Just last week, one of the pursers of the carrier, Hajia A. Jatto died of minor ailment and was buried last week Saturday, thus, highlighting several others that are down with various sicknesses that requires less than N20, 000 to treat.
Another seasoned engineer, Peter Ibeh died last week and had since been buried. Since 2004, over 750 ex-workers including pilots had since died waiting for their ‘elusive’ benefits.
Some of the ex-workers who spoke to Woleshadare.net said the painful aspect of the situation was that the fund had been released since February this year but the misunderstanding between the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika and Chairman, Presidential
An inter-ministerial committee set up by the government to come out with the actual amount of money to be paid the workers, had come up with the N78 billion to over 6,000 staff of the liquidated carrier.
The committee also recommended 1 per cent administrative charges, totalling N735 million to any government agency that would disburse the funds to the ex-workers.
Suddenly, a department under the Ministry of Finance, PICA, which the present administration set up to review all government payments, showed interest in the disbursement of the funds.
PICA, in its recommendation to the government, reduced the sum to N43 billion, but increased the administrative charges to N2.1 billion without any recourse to percentage as recommended by the inter-ministerial committee.
A source close to the Ministry of Transport claimed that the power tussle between Sirika and Dikwah, may be responsible for the delay in payment of the final severance packages to the former national carrier workers.
The workers have in different occasions asked the Federal Government to pay them after the liquidation of the airline but the Obasanjo government refused to pay them while the Late President Musa Yar’ Adua administration paid them five years.
Based on the death and inability of the workers to meet up with their daily obligations, the former workers have decided to plead with the government and embarking on weekly prayers as according to them, their agitations have defiled human solutions.
One of the affected workers, an aircraft engineer, Ayuba Kyari, said their demands were beyond human solutions and has decided to ask for God’s grace upon them.
Kyari said about N70bn was needed to settle all the workers of the defunct airline for the period of their 20 years pay off, explaining that since the liquidation of the airline on May 21, 2003, the Federal Government had only paid the retirees five years pension arrears out of 25 years pension arrears.
He urged the government to pay the retired workers the outstanding pension arrears. It was learnt that NAL employees who served in New York, Rome, London and other West African countries had been paid 25 years pension arrears.
Just last week, former workers of Nigeria Airways based in Accra, Ghana, Lome, Togo, Yaounde, Cameroon, Benin and Gabon petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari over their plight.
The workers, Emetule Fina (Gabon); Eno Mao (Gabon); Ndoke Hannah (Cameroon); Bareng John (Cameroon); Afandomi Raymond (Benin); and Mensah Teteh (Togo) in a petition made available to Woleshadare.net lauded Buhari for approving the payment of final entitlements of the ex-workers.
They however flayed the power tussle between Sirika and Dikwah as major cause for the delay, alleging that no agreement had been reached on who and what to pay.
They equally alleged that while the chairman of PICA is bent on reducing the N78b approved to N43b with N2b interest as the paying body, the Minister of State for Aviation insists on the payment of the full N78b with one per cent to the paying body, describing what is playing out as greed in interest is the reason for the delay to pay the suffering staff
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HONESTLY GOVT OF THE DAY MUST BE BLAMED BEC SOME OF THEM IN PRESIDENCE LACK FORESIGHT ON WHAT AVIATION IS ALL ABOUT THIS PEOPLE HAVE TURNED THEMSELVES TO SEMI GOD THEY HAVE BECOME A LAUGHING STOCK IN COMITY OF NATION THIS A DESERVED BENEFIT OF WORKERS BY RIGHT WICH NOBODY SHD TOY WITH IT IT IS NOT A FAVOUR LOOK AT HOW MANY HAVE DIED BEC OF POWER TUSSLE WE ARE BEEN ANIMALISTIC SUCH INCIDEMT WILL NOT HAPPEN IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES WHAT A SHAME IF THE GOVT PAID OUR COUNTER PART AT OTHER COUNTRIES IN EUROPE,AMERICA AND OUTSIDE NIGERIA THEIR BENEFIT WHAT IS OUR SIN GOVT TURNED US TO SLAVE IN OUR OWN FATHER LAND KILLING THE PENSIONERS SILENTLY WITH NO MERCY WHO ARE THOSE BENEFITING FROM BILLIONS OF MONEY EARMARKED TO PAY THE EX WORKERS.IS IT FIXED AND WHY DRAGGING WITH THE MONEY IT IS A SCAM AND CORUPTION AT PLAY TO FRUSRATE THE EX WT WORKERS AFTER US THIS MONEY IS PEANUT COMPARE THE PACKAGE PAID TO RETIREES OF OIL COMPANY IN NIGERIA IS UNFORTUNATE MOST OF THEM ARE MERE POLITICAL APPOINTEES AND OPPURTUNIST THEY ONLY AT CORRIDOR OF POWER TO CAUSE MORE CONFUSION THEY HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER THEY ARE FEEDING FAT ON THE POPULACE BUHARI ADMINISTRATION MUST NOT ALLOW THEM TO RUBISH HIS GOVT IS ONE OF HIS CARDINAL ELECTION PROMISE TO PAY ALL GENUINE PENSIONERS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY ENOUGH OF THIS ENDLESS SUFFERING OF EX STAFF OF DEFUNCT NATIONAL CARRIER PLS SAVE THEIR SOULS WITH FAMILY AND AVOID MORE CASUALITIES AND DEATH OF EX WT STAFF AND FAMILY.