Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, has approved an initial ₦10 billion intervention to address outstanding gratuity payments to retired civil servants, following his concern over workers who served the state for years without receiving their retirement benefits.
The Accountant-General of Enugu State, Mr. Tony Okenwa, disclosed this in an interview, saying the Governor was deeply troubled by the plight of retirees after his administration inherited about ₦32 billion in unpaid gratuity obligations covering the period from 2010 to 2023.
Okenwa said Mbah repeatedly questioned how workers could retire after years of service without receiving the financial benefits they had earned.
“Do you mean that people retire and then don’t go home with their gratuity?” the Governor reportedly asked.
According to the Accountant-General, the Governor’s concern for civil servants and retirees remained evident during discussions on how to address the inherited backlog.
“He could not understand how somebody would work for many years, retire and still not receive what he had earned,” Okenwa said.
He explained that although he initially proposed making provisions for monthly payments, Mbah insisted on finding the resources to substantially address the accumulated obligations.
“AG, let us look for money and clean off these things so that people will take their money and go and do something they want,” Okenwa quoted the Governor as saying.
The Accountant-General said Mbah subsequently directed that gratuities incurred under his administration should be paid while plans were developed to clear the inherited debts.
“Please, AG, let us start paying the ones that were incurred during our own period,” the Governor reportedly told him.
“Let us start from January of 2025 to pay, while others, we make plans to clean them off.”
Okenwa said payments commenced in January 2025, with gratuities processed and paid directly into the bank accounts of retiring civil servants until financial constraints made it difficult to sustain the exercise.
He disclosed that the Governor later directed the categorisation of outstanding liabilities into three groups to ensure that every category of retirees was accommodated.
The categories comprise the inherited gratuity backlog of about ₦32 billion, obligations incurred between June 2023 and December 2024, and gratuities covering June 2025 to September 2026.
To coordinate the exercise, Mbah constituted a committee chaired by the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Chidiebere Onyia, with the Commissioner for Finance as secretary and the Accountant-General and Principal Secretary to the Government, Ken Chukwuegbo, as members.
Okenwa said the Governor magnanimously approved an initial ₦10 billion, allocating ₦8 billion to legacy debts and ₦1 billion each to the other two categories.
The state initially deployed ₦5 billion for payments, which were released in phases to accommodate verification and resolve issues arising from the accumulated records.
The Accountant-General disclosed that the first batch of 1,030 retirees received ₦1.9197 billion, while another 783 beneficiaries received approximately ₦1.199 billion in the second batch.
He said the administration was also addressing old outstanding claims, including those dating back to the 1990s and early 2000s.
Okenwa described the intervention as unprecedented in his career, saying: “I must say that, in my 35 years as a civil servant, I have never witnessed this kind of policy intervention with such a direct impact on people’s lives.”
He said the Governor had indicated that payments would continue monthly until the outstanding obligations were settled, subject to the release of funds.
“As for when the entire backlog will be cleared, by the grace of God, it will be completed as long as the release of funds continues,” Okenwa said.
He added that the administration was working to ensure that all verified and eligible retirees received their entitlements, including those whose claims had remained unpaid for decades.
