The Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, Ekiti State Council, offered prayers to God on Thursday for intervention regarding the insecurity and economic hardships in the country.
The prayer summit, the first in the series for 2024, tagged “Seeking The Supremacy Of God’s Power,” was held at the NUP State Secretariat in Ado-Ekiti.
The Chairman of NUP, Ekiti State Council, Comrade Joel Akinola, stated that the current situation in the country calls for spiritual intervention as the majority of the masses are experiencing economic hardships.
While noting that only God can redeem the country and influence the decisions of the leaders, he lamented that leaders across all levels of government are the problem in the country.
He said, “With the current situation in the country, Ekiti State inclusive, only God can intervene. God will choose someone to resolve the crisis in Nigeria. Even the blind know that Nigeria is not doing well. We are suffering in the midst of plenty, and our government has misplaced priorities.
“The problem with this country is leadership. It is unfortunate with the kind of leaders we have at the local, state, and federal levels of government. Nigeria has no problem but only a leadership problem.
“Critical areas of concern are the menace of kidnappings, murder, and general insecurity. We are witnessing a high cost of goods and services that is making life unbearable for people. This is largely caused by the thoughtless hike in the price of fuel.
“The union pleads with the Federal Government to urgently implement necessary interventions to alleviate the hardship Nigerians are going through.”
He also called on the Ekiti State government to remit the partial payment of their pensions and unpaid gratuities while urging the release of more funds to pay the balance of five months and two months outstanding for Local and State Governments’ pensioners respectively.
Addressing the unremitted deductions of payments due to pensioners, he said, “We implore His Excellency (Governor Oyebanji) to remit the outstanding four months deductions from our pensions. We need these deductions now more than ever because of the high cost of goods and services in the country. The deductions are for the months of April, May, June, and July 2018.
“There is an unfortunate scenario where, in this hard time, some of our members earn as little as N340 per month. One wonders what this amount will buy. This is why we are appealing to Mr Governor to implement the consequential adjustment of our pensions in line with the economic realities of our time and in consonance with the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution.”
