The Mint’s pensioners: Makers of money, impoverished in retirement

IT WAS ironic, if baffling, to imagine that the people who printed Nigeria's currency for several decades till they retired will be paid back with hunger and privation to the level of being ejected from their homes and ruining in ailment and squalor. But it is true.

Beholding some pensioners of the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) Plc. in their gaunt and grotesque fraility was worrisome. Their weak old frames and very visible state of want made the vista worse.

Yet nothing was as shocking as hearing their tales of woe. But against the background of the recent N2.1 billion scam in the NSPMC, following the alleged missing of newly printed N1000 notes and such cases as the one earlier in the year that a middle level staff of the government agency was found to have tucked away billions of naira in his account, the notion that pensioners of the system are dying in hunger and squalor beats imagination.

It sounded unbelievable when it was first mentioned that some people who worked and retired in the organisation, also known as The Mint, at such high level as senior managers and directors still take home as little as N500 monthly as pension. But the victims told the stories themselves when our correspondents encountered them recently, in a forum where scores of them gather monthly to moan and cry their woes out in a serene hive at Ebute Metta, Lagos. Found in the gathering were gaunt old folks who struggle unseccessfully to cloak their distress and anger.

Being elderly citizens who have ganeered vast experience in the field of security printing and production of sensitive government documents such as currency notes, coins, bank notes, voter cards, certificates, bond papers et al, most of the encountered have traversed the globe for trainnings and workshops. They have also stayed long in the job which vitally demands an oath of secrecy and loyalty to ethics and country that getting crucial information from them almost always hits brick wall.

One of the pensioners, Afolabi Adewumi, is a veteran printer and widely travelled one. He exudes all mien of a man who knows that job but his vista overwhelms his candour and rich knowledge. He worked in the federal government-owned money printing firm and retired over two decades ago as an assistant manager. Since 1991, when he disengaged from the NSPM service, after working for 22 years, to date, he earns N1,300.

Middle aged Peter Osuomor, who had trained and embarked on specialised courses in Nigeria, Ukraine, the defunct USSR, Canada among other countries is one of those mint pensioners too. He also left the company as a print manager in 1997. To date, he earns a paltry N7,000. But it was said that his case is, comparatively, better, as the worse-hit are those who retired from the system in 1991 where people like, Mr E.T. Inyang, who retired as an assistant general manager (AGM), third to the highest designation in the organisation, still receives barely over N2,000, monthly, to date.

There are others whose pension are still N500 N700 and N1,000 respectively. The situation led is blamed on two key factors. Among them the refusal of the authorities of the NSPM to a fortuitous coming together of  “The highest paid pensioners of the 1991 pensioners were the retired Engineering Director and retired Assistant General Manager whose pension is N3,000. In our 1997 set the situation is not much different... This is in the same country where political leaders go home every day with money loaded in ‘Ghana must go’ bags,” Osuomor lamented.

According to the pensioners, over 200 pensioners of The  Mint have died without receiving their pension salary. It is not doubtful why the high death toll occur after seeing the scores of men who have been meeting regularly since over a decade to seek ways of pressing their case through negotiations with the relevant authorities or legal means but without significant headway. Their emaciated bones and dejected mien say volumes of their disgust with nation they served all through their youth and prime.

Osuomor asked: “Can you imagine that in this country where economy has become so expensive, a man with family will receive N500 monthly?... Consider how he is going to meet his demands worth with his family's... How can one talk about living peacefully after serving the government in such situation?” 

Investigation conducted by Nigerian Compass revealed that two administrative factors contribute to the gory situation. First, since 1991, authorities of The Mint has allegedly, refused to review pension salaries as the country's economic tide change and serving civil servants' salaries are upwardly reviewed. Secondly, the  NSPM has reportedly, put a quasi freeze on dynamic upgrading of the pension emolument of its pensioners of the 1991 and 1997 sets. People who left the service of the company at these periods were victims of a wave of mass retrenchment exercise that swept through The Mint as a result of repeated commercialisation and privatisation epochs.

Following NSPM's said refusal to treat the senior citizens like other pensioners of federal government MDAs the affected forner security printers had gone to court in two seperate suits, filed by batches of the retirees and won both. But the NSPM appealed the cases. At another instance it contested the jurisdiction of the Lagos high courts that adjudicated on the cases. Somehow, the matter stalled there and the poor elders say they have no money to continue in the cases.

Now they tow the path of negotiations with the NSPM who, reportedly, are throwing all boulders on the path of the talks.

Lamenting their fate, the pensioners tell the Nigerian Compass their counterparts in such organisations as Nigerian Railway Corporation, Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL), NIPOST and other federal government agencies affected by similar comercialisation and privatisation policies have their valedictory emoluments reviewed in line with the contemporary realities of the civil service.

“We do not know why ours still remain different... This is very unfair to people who gave all they have in the service of their fatherland. This is also a form of discouragement to those working for government in this country,” the workers moan.

The old citizens distress is heightened by their observation that The Mint seems to hurry on every other issue but opts to tarry on theirs. Recent events tend to buttress their worry.

According to reports, the company’s board met recently in a meeting presided over by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to deal with the issue of N2.1 billion scam in NSPMC. They decided to  expand the investigation and audit the production of other currency denominations to ascertain the quantity of money that has actually gone missing over the years.

Earlier there was a suspension of the Chief Executive, Ehi Okomoyon, till the investigation is concluded, which wasreaffirmed at the meeting. He was reported to have failed to point out that such an amount of money was missing hence was penciled down out by the board for punishment as Ahmed Bamali takes over as the head the company.
The board also asked the head of security at the NSPMC, Emmanuel Bala to go on compulsory leave.

But no action had been taken on the issue of the dying pensioners even as, according to investigations by The Nigerian Compass on Sunday, the pensioners have been engaged in regular discussion with The Mint in the past decade. The pensioners even meet monthly in Lagos to contribute money “from their poverty” to foot the transportation and hotel bills of their representatives in the endless negotiation.

“It has all been fruitless meetings upon meetings with those heartless people in Abuja... for years now. And we do not get any thing out of it... They just do not care!” fumed one of the retirees who added that most of his colleagues have given up and “handed over our matter to God.”
Compass