Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru, has said his administration is working with the management of the state-owned university to find a solution to the pension and gratuity crisis affecting more than 200 retired workers of the institution.
The governor made this known while responding to an appeal by the retirees, who asked the state government to intervene in the delay in the payment of their retirement benefits.
Nwifuru explained that the dispute was linked to the question of who bears responsibility for the pensions and gratuities of the affected workers, noting that they were employed by the university rather than directly by the Ebonyi State Government.
According to the governor, existing laws governing the institution do not automatically transfer responsibility for the retirees’ benefits to the state government.
“The problem now is who actually is responsible for the payment of the pensions and gratuities of these people, since the government of Ebonyi is not the one employing them. They are not the ones hiring,” Nwifuru said.
He maintained that the government could not automatically assume responsibility for workers it did not employ, stressing that the authority to employ workers was connected to the authority to terminate their appointments.
“The law is very clear. You cannot fire who you did not hire. That’s the problem that they are facing,” the governor stated.
However, Nwifuru said his administration had reached an understanding with the university management to accommodate the affected retirees and work towards addressing their concerns.
“We have gotten to a point that we agreed with the management of the university. We agreed that what we should do is accommodate these people that are already crying,” he said.
The governor noted that universities operate under different administrative and financial arrangements, meaning that responsibility for staff pensions and other retirement benefits depends largely on the ownership and management structure of the institution.
“If they are being run by government, it is the responsibility of government; their staff are staff of that state government. But if they are not being run by government, then you cannot say that the government should also pay,” Nwifuru explained.
He added that the university management was engaging relevant authorities to develop an arrangement that would help resolve the pension and gratuity concerns of the affected retirees.
The governor also spoke about ongoing infrastructure projects at the ICT University, saying construction and development work were progressing despite the financial limitations facing the state.
Nwifuru said his administration had deliberately reduced spending on elaborate project commissioning ceremonies and publicity in order to channel more government resources into infrastructure development.
“We are not spending much money in order to commission projects. We have small resources, so the money we would spend on television houses, media houses and social media for commissioning projects can be used to do one kilometre of road,” he said.
The governor further disclosed that President Bola Tinubu is expected to commission some projects at the ICT University during his planned visit to Ebonyi State.
According to Nwifuru, the projects expected to be commissioned include the university’s Senate building.
“We have Mr President. Anytime Mr President is coming here, he will commission that project,” he said.
He added that another project would also be commissioned during the presidential visit but did not disclose further details.
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