After months of silence from the now-popular 1991 retirees of NPA, I had thought that the lingering matter of non-payment of entitlements of those who were forcefully laid off by NPA in 1991 had been settled. But an SOS-like text message from two of the group’s top members jolted me. The message was as it has always been; that of lamentation and angst from the almost 3,000 ex –workers of NPA. Mr Sylva Okoro has been speaking with me on the telephone for more than one year on their plight and our organisation has used all its platforms to publicise their plight. Bu when he led two other members of his group to our office last week, I was convinced that the sooner NPA listened to them and paid them the better; before more deaths would occur.
For how many years did you work with NPA?
I served for 14 years and five months
When were you and members of your group retired?
We were retired by June 1991 when NPA said they were embracing commercialization, before then they had sacked a lot of people who had no certificates, or who had bad records and so on and so forth. After that we had thought that the retrenchment would stop, so the rest of us were very happy that we would follow NPA into the commercialization era because they told us that salaries would be increased. When we were newly employed, we were receiving about N100 a month, that time they pay us half of the salary every two weeks, so when they said they were going on commercialization, we were very happy that those of us that would remain would enjoy NPA. But before you know it, another retrenchment came in, these are the retirees of 1991, about 10,000 workers were retrenched at that time.
What reason did the management of NPA give for the retirement?
The reason they gave was that they don’t want to go into commercialization with too many workers, but unfortunately, those who did not have any bad records in their files were also retrenched along, and we said fine, since you want us to go, pay us our entitlements and all the benefits due to us but they failed to do this, they denied us.
How have you been coping since that time?
Initially for the first six months, some of us were opportune to get small jobs that we were doing. But you know how the country is today; especially with the private companies, you work for one to two years and they will sack you, when you go to another one for one or two years, they will also sack you, and that is how we have been coping. Some of us who are now too old and who can not find anything to do, their wives and children are the ones assisting them; for many of us, our wives are the breadwinners of the family.
What is your take on NPA of the 1990s and NPA of today?
There are a lot of changes in NPA, they have concessioned the ports and they have privatized it, the concessionaires paid monies to NPA but they have in return failed to hear the complaints of workers about their pension and entitlements, NPA is ‘pensionable’ organization and there was no need to pay the workers off in the name of buying them out, the workers are not happy till tomorrow.
Commercialisation or privatisation, which one do you prefer?
Commercialization is better because it will carry a lot of Nigerians along, I meant that many Nigerians would be employed, but instead, government embraced concessioning and gave the ports to private hands, but commercialization will carry Nigerians along and give them jobs as a Nigerian company, now that it is into private hands it is difficult for you and I to go there and get employment, so commercialization is better.
Would you then say that concessioning was a mistake?
Yes it was a mistake because I can say that the people who own the companies that bought the terminals are all politicians; those in Government used it to favour their friends and relatives.
How is it with your colleagues who were retired alongside with you, where are they?
About 50 percent of us have died in this struggle, about two days ago, one woman was buried, when we see our people dying day in day out, we feel so bad for what NPA is doing, people who should have tasted the fruit of their labour are now dying, most of us were breadwinners in our homes but with this deprivation of our pension and gratuities, we have become nothing, our wives and children no longer give us respects, our children are no longer going to school and we cannot even pay our house rent, that is why you see us crying, how should somebody finish working in NPA and afterwards become a beggar, it is very bad.
How much were you given in 1991?
In fact, when we were forcefully retrenched in 1991 they paid me one year gratuity because I had served for more than 10 years, but those who served below 10 years were given only one month salary. Going by the years that I put in, they are supposed to pay me my pension with three months in lieu of notice, while those who served below ten years ought to be given only one month in lieu of notice. NPA did not do all these things and these are the rights we are now demanding which the court has granted us.
Before you went to court did you explore other options?
Before we went to court, our representatives went to the management and complained about our wrongful termination of appointment, they called it determination of appointment according to the letters giving to us. According to the court, by right, we are still in service, but NPA do not want to go into those areas, they don’t want to look at anything that will favour us, they signed the circular that we used to win them today, it was when one of the directors was affected during our period that we got that circular. So we have approached them severally to comply with the circular that was issued by the federal government, but they refused.
What did the court say?
The first court that we went to was the Lagos High Court and after five years, the court came up with its judgment in our favour and that was that we are entitled to pension; that those who have served in NPA for 10 years and above qualify for pensions and other benefits and that those who served below 10 years qualify for gratuity according to the NPA’s condition of service. This is what the court said. After that judgment, we were very glad that NPA is going to pay us but after two to three months, we heard that NPA has gone on appeal, but the appeal was dropped due to lack of diligent prosecution at the Court of Appeal in 1998, yet NPA continued to disregard it, they don’t want to respect the court’s verdict.
So it is from Court of Appeal that your group went to Supreme Court?
Yes, they appealed severally in various courts, there was a time they referred us back to High Court again. We thank our lawyer Mr Dokun Makinde; he is a very good Christian and he stood solidly behind us, there is nothing NPA did not do to buy him over, but the lawyer said No, these are poor masses. So from the Court of Appeal we went to the Supreme Court.
Who took the matter to Supreme Court?
We were the ones who took the matter to Supreme Court when we saw what they are doing at the lower courts, we had series of cases but finally in 2005, the Supreme Court gave judgment, yet NPA refused. By the time our lawyer wrote to them that they should come to round table and fashion out the modalities of our payment, the NPA lawyer told our lawyer that he should know that there was an impending case against us based on fraud and our lawyer began to battle with that again. Finally on the 11th of May, 2007 the Supreme Court gave the final court verdict that NPA has no right to question the Federal Government circular and that the circular is formed by the Federal Government and so they should go and comply and pay us based on the lower court’s decision.
In specifics, what are you demanding from NPA?
We are demanding from NPA that from 1991 till date, they should pay us our pension areas and then they should place us on pension, those members that fall below 10 years qualify for gratuity, that is what we are demanding. And right from 1991, the Federal Government of Nigeria has been increasing pension and percentages on pension which we have calculated; it is almost 570 per cent which they are going to include to make up our pension arrears. Similarly, the monetization and the N18, 000 minimum wage is going to affect pensioners and anything that affects pensioners affects us. Even if NPA refuses to pay us till next year anything the government says should affect the pensioners will definitely affect the 1991 retirees.
It is not NPA that is paying us, it is the federal government. A few months ago NPA went to the National Assembly over budget proposal of about N131.5billion, they were queried by the National Assembly that you are asking for increase in budget and in 2008 we gave you all this money to settle the whole pensioners and that there have been series of complaints from 1991 retirees, what are you doing with all these money, this year again, you came for increase, go and give 1991 retirees their money before we can approve your budget. About a month ago, the minister of transport gave a final order that they should pay us our pension and gratuity and that they should comply with the court order.
Why do you think that the managing director will disobey the Supreme Court ruling and also disobey the minister?
That is why we are surprised, somebody who is your boss gives you an order and you refused to obey, we are looking at it that maybe there is something behind it, because if I am your boss and I give you orders and you refused to comply, the next thing is to fire you, this is why we are surprised.
As it is now, where are we?
That is what we are asking NPA now: who is holding the retirees money? Where are these budgets and who is holding it? We are grateful to the National Assembly and the various committees, the minister of justice and the minister of transport. Without them, NPA would have scrapped us long ago, we believe that with all that is happening now, NPA will change to do the right thing, because what they are doing now is what they did in 2008 when they said they have paid us and nothing was paid, In the newspaper publications, they said they have commenced payment but the retirees are yet to provide bank data and corrections of which we have done since 2008.
That brings me to what some of your members are saying about being paid only N1, 000, N2000 and so on, is it true?
Yes, it is very true, we have gone to our banks, and nothing was there. Those who find something only saw N1000, N2000, can you imagine?
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