The very fact that Gov. Hope Uzodimma is trying to make sure that no single pensioner in the state is owed of their pensions keeps dwarfing the imagination of those who thought he couldn’t do it especially some merchants of distorted and disoriented information that would’ve loved to sell lies in their usual manner.
Even as the opposition have failed to secure a place in the minds of the pensioners, they’ve further degenerated to the level of accusing the Shared prosperity Government of Gov. Hope Uzodimma of staggered payment of pensions in the state which is not surprising to us since we know it is the oppositions stock-in-trade.
The recent visit by the National Union of Pensioners (NUP) to the State Governor was an eye opener as to how Gov. Hope Uzodimma have taken it upon himself to finding a lasting solution to the plight of our pensioners in the state. It was on that proposition that the Governor made his stand known that staggered payment of pensions in Imo state is something his Government has never been involved in and will never be.
Previous administrations in the state have only ended up playing politics with the issue of pensions in the state from media charade of clearing 12 months arrears to verification and payment of pensions through consultants yet corruption found its bedrock in the system. It therefore became imperative that the only way to get the system working was to sanitize it hence, on assumption of duty Gov. Hope Uzodimma uncovered fraudulent entries and dubious record keeping by pension administrators and initiated the act of paying pensioners as they are screened and verified. Of course it can only be this better with our Governor.
As at today, the ingenuity of Gov. Hope Uzodimma has resulted in close to 100% clearance of all genuine pensioners in the state as those owed now are less than 900 even as the Governor has promised to clear every outstanding pension.