Thanks to subsidy removal, all states are now paying salaries and pensions
…Alia Govt Doesn’t Need Roadshow for Payments
By Tyodoo Livinus
I have read some embellished reports and write-ups with half truths and outright falsehood, all in a bid to eclipse the concerted efforts that the immediate past Governor of Benue State, Chief Samuel Ortom made in addressing the perennial problem of pensions, in the face of dire economic circumstances. The present government of the state doesn’t want anyone to believe that Governor Ortom did anything meaningful in the area of payment of salaries and pensions.
But the truth remains that throughout the 8 years of President Muhammadu Buhari between 2015 and 2023, the payment of pensions were a major governance problem in Nigeria in the sense that most states of the Federation were not able to settle the pension entitlements of their retiring or retired staff as and when due.
Benue State had its share of the pension challenge. The first civilian administration of Governor Aper Aku is on record as owing many months of unpaid pension to its workers up to the time it was overthrown by the military in 1984. Since then, successive administrations in the state including military and civilian, have had to grapple with the issue of unpaid pension arrears and backlog of unpaid gratuities.
When Governor Samuel Ortom took over the mantle of leadership in 2015, his administration also inherited a total pension liability (pension arrears, gratuity, and death benefits) of N72.4 billion at the local government level while at the state level, the pension liabilities inherited by the Ortom administration amounted to N12.5 billion, but he paid and did not complain.
It is worthy of note that owing to the inadequacy of funds, the Ortom administration had an agreement with Benue State pensioners and was constantly paying pensions every two months to ameliorate the challenges being faced by our senior citizens.
At that time, 28 states were not able to pay salaries, pensions and gratuities.
Now under President Bola Tinubu, the story is different. The removal fuel subsidy has made more funds available to states in such a huge manner that no state, aside from Benue, is currently owing salaries, pensions and gratuities. No other state is celebrating the payment of salaries as the current government of Benue has made salaries and pensions payment its flagship accomplishment. Even Kogi State which owed several years of wages and pensions is not brandishing salaries and pensions payments as the bastion of its achievements in office.
All states of the federation have since cleared the backlog of salaries, pensions and gratuities under the Tinubu subsidy removal naira rain. This is why I don’t understand the need for the daily roadshow by the Alia government about the payment of workers’ emoluments.
It is on record that the Ortom administration introduced the pension reforms vide the Pension Reform Law 2019. The Law introduced the Contributory Pension Scheme to run side by side with the Defined Benefits Scheme in the State and established the Benue State Pension Commission to administer the Scheme in the State’s Public Sector. The Benue State Pension Commission was inaugurated on 19th August 2019 and it immediately set about preparing the groundwork for the takeoff of the Contributory Pension Scheme in the State.
At the time Governor Ortom was leaving office in 2023, the Contributory Pension Scheme that the Ortom administration introduced had contributed about N8 billion.

It is therefore a thing of surprise to me to hear that despite the efforts made by the previous administration of Governor Ortom to address the issue of pensions and gratuity, and despite the avalanche of funds available to states now with federal allocations coming in at an all time high of over 400% increase for both state and local governments, the Alia administration has not remitted the Benue State Government’s side of contributions to Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) for a whole year (since February 2024).
Let me conclude by urging the present government of Benue State to focus on fulfilling its promises to the people by clearing salary and pension arrears. Governor Ortom also inherited billions of owed wages and pensions but paid.
The about 2 million Benue IDPs are still suffering in different camps in parts of the state. The displaced people are still waiting for the governor to fulfill his promise to return them to their ancestral homelands as he promised.
Those are the issues that should bother the governor and his administration.
• Tyodoo is a concerned Benue son.