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Yesterday, while struggling to beat the deadline for today’s publication, I decided to call the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Anambra State Council, Comrade Anthony Ugozor. I wanted to hear directly from someone who was at the centre of pensioners’ affairs during Peter Obi’s administration.
His phone rang repeatedly, but he did not pick up. This morning, however, he called back and apologised, explaining that he was at Nawgu, at the invitation of the Igwe, for their New Yam Festival.
I recall in 2018, when the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Anambra State chapter, honoured Peter Obi, Ugozor publicly praised his administration for paying monthly pensions and gratuities, including inherited arrears. He also recalled Obi’s Christmas rice gifts to pensioners and donation of a 14-seater bus to the union.
Obi’s concern for the elderly went beyond government pensioners. During his administration, elderly citizens above 70 who were not pensioners, had no one to care for them and were vulnerable received special stipends. It was a recognition that old age itself could become a period of vulnerability and that government had a responsibility to protect the dignity of its elderly citizens.
Pensions and gratuities, he believes, are not acts of charity; they are entitlements earned through years of service. What made the Obi experience noteworthy, as described by the pensioners’ leadership, was the emphasis on promptness, regularity and clearing inherited obligations, rather than allowing retirees to spend their final years pursuing government for what was already theirs.
This is why the testimony of pensioners deserves attention in the current debate about governance. The pensioner does not experience government through press releases or statistics; he experiences it when his pension enters his account, when his gratuity is paid and when he can meet the basic needs of old age without begging for what he earned.
For me, therefore, the issue is not simply whether Peter Obi paid pensions, but what his treatment of pensioners says about his conception of government. If he becomes President, his record in Anambra gives pensioners and senior citizens reason to expect that their welfare will receive particular attention.
His experience suggests that concern for the elderly was not an afterthought, but part of his broader understanding that government must protect the dignity of those who have spent their productive years serving society.
