• As Gov Otu promises payment of second gratuity tranche
By Ike Uchechukwu
For many retired civil servants in Cross River State, decades of service to the government have ended in a daily struggle for survival, with some receiving as little as N4,000 monthly pension — an amount barely sufficient for basic food, let alone medication.
The Chairman of the Cross River State chapter of the National Association of Retirees of State Government of Nigeria, NARSGON, Daniel Effiom, has raised the alarm over the worsening condition of pensioners, saying hunger, illness and delayed payment of retirement benefits are pushing many to untimely deaths.
Effiom, in a message to the Cross River State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Christopher Etta, appealed for urgent intervention by Governor Bassey Otu over unpaid gratuities and the wide disparity in pension payments among retirees in the state.
“Our members are really suffering in Cross River State. Some are earning N4,000, N5,000, N6,000, and so on, as monthly pensions.
“What can such monies do for a living human being? There’s so much hunger and sickness. And many are dying undeserved deaths every day”, he lamented.
According to Effiom, a number of retirees have died because they could not afford drugs, hospital bills and other basic necessities, while others continue to wait for gratuities and other entitlements accumulated after decades of public service.
“We need our entitlements urgently, please,” he appealed.
He also rejected the perception that retired workers had become “spent forces”, arguing that their experience and contributions remain valuable to the development of Cross River State.
Beyond the immediate humanitarian concerns, Effiom reminded the APC chairman of the political significance of pensioners, pointing out that retirees constitute a sizeable voting population, with dependants who could influence electoral outcomes.
N10 billion tranche
The pension crisis predates the present administration.
Governor Otu’s administration inherited a substantial backlog of gratuities owed to retired state workers.
At the 2026 Workers’ Day celebration in Calabar, the governor put the outstanding liabilities at about 14 years, covering the period from 2009 to 2023.
To address the backlog, the administration set aside N10 billion as a first tranche for the payment of outstanding gratuities.
Payments commenced around August 2024 after a verification and authentication exercise was conducted to identify genuine pensioners.
The exercise was overseen by a committee headed by the Secretary to the State Government.
However, by the time of the 2026 Workers’ Day address, delivered on the governor’s behalf by his deputy, Peter Odey, the administration said the N10 billion tranche had only cleared outstanding gratuities up to 2015.
That left almost a decade of unpaid entitlements still outstanding, underscoring the continuing financial hardship faced by retirees.
For pensioners represented by NARSGON, the unpaid gratuities have compounded the difficulties created by extremely low monthly pensions.
Second tranche promise
Amid the mounting concerns, Governor Otu has offered fresh assurances that his administration will continue its efforts to clear the backlog.
The governor made the commitment when he received a delegation of the Cross River State Elders’ Forum, led by retired Colonel Pam Ogar, a former Military Administrator of Kwara State, at the State Executive Council Chamber in Calabar.
Otu disclosed that arrangements had commenced for the release of another tranche of gratuities before December 2026.
The governor appeared visibly moved by the presence of the elders, acknowledging the role they played in building the state and the experience they still possess.
“When I look at the faces here, I see people who have reached the peak in their different professions and who have had experiences which we still need in terms of nation-building and state-building,” he said.
Otu said his administration remained sensitive to the plight of retirees and was committed to progressively settling their outstanding benefits.
He also described the wisdom and experience of the state’s elders as invaluable to Cross River’s continued development.
For pensioners struggling to survive on monthly payments of N4,000, N5,000 and N6,000, however, the latest promise of another gratuity tranche represents more than an administrative commitment.
It is a matter of survival.
The delay in receiving benefits accumulated over years of service, for many, means continued difficulty in paying for food, medication and other basic needs.
As Effiom’s appeal illustrates, the cost of the delay is not measured only in unpaid naira.
It is also being measured in the lives of retirees who, after spending decades building the state, now face hunger, sickness and an uncertain wait for the benefits they earned.
The promised December 2026 tranche could therefore prove significant, particularly if it begins to close the gap between gratuities paid up to 2015 and those still owed to retirees for subsequent years.
Vanguard News
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