Certainly, one of the indicators of underdevelopment in contemporary times is the weaponisation of poverty by the country’s political leaders. Basic rights are usually treated as favour. If, for, instance the governor of a state finds it convenient to describe the regular payment of monthly salaries to civil servants as a political achievement, that says a lot about how warped his perception of governance is. Prior to the recent governorship election in Osun State, the outgoing governor, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, was reported to have paid pension arrears to retired civil servants in the state. In doing that, he opened up the government to allegations that the move was made to soften the ground for his re-election. Apparently, the bait didn’t work because he was rejected in that election. It would look like the Osun State government was playing a bad game here as there was nothing that could have made the payment of pensions unfeasible until the election season. The Osun State government certainly owes pensioners full and copious explanations on why they could not be paid beforehand.

Such an experience is by no means peculiar to Osun State: the whole country is replete with it. For instance, pensioners in Delta State were reported to have protested the accumulation of their monthly pensions recently in the wake of the unveiling of the governor of the state, Ifeanyi Okowa, as the vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election. In fact, with the exception of states like Oyo and Lagos where the payment of pensions seems to have been taken as an article of faith, there is hardly any state in the country where pensioners aren’t owed pensions. The respective state governments say that they are too financially incapacitated to pay pensioners. Meanwhile, it is their statutory responsibility to ensure that pensions are paid regularly to their intended beneficiaries. It is difficult to fathom how such a fundamental and inalienable right of retired workers easily morphed into bait in the hands of politicians. Pension payments should never be used to make pensioners succumb to pressure and comply with political wishes and desires. It is wrong and unacceptable for politicians to mistreat older citizens who have spent most of their productive years in the service of the states.

We believe that the government ought to prioritise the payment of pensions, particularly as pensioners are mostly old people who are critically dependent on their paltry earnings to eke out some form of existence. We are persuaded that playing games with pension payment is utterly wicked on the part of those in leadership positions. If the Nigerian constitution affirms that the essence of government is the security and welfare of the people generally, why suspend the legitimate earnings of senior citizens? It is absurd and inconsiderate to put these senior citizens under a burden of any kind. They have, after all, worked and sacrificed for their states in order to be able to live the rest of their lives in peace and satisfaction. Why, in the name of all that is good and just, must politicians wait for election time before paying pensions? Why bait pensioners with their legitimate entitlements?

We do not want to believe that it would take the coming of elections for state governments to show that they have a responsibility for paying pensions. At the risk of sounding repetitive, pensions are statutory and legitimate earnings of pensioners that should be paid to them in accordance with the provisions of the law. We think that toying with pensioners’ entitlements is disrespectful of the sacrifices the pensioners made to the economy of the respective states and the country when they were working. This is a game that is in bad taste and that ought not to have occurred. State governments should stop maltreating pensioners, making the payment of pensions a political gimmick. We believe that such an act is utterly condemnable.

The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”

He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.

“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.

According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”

“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.

The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”

“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.

“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succor to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.

“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.

Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.

“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.

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