Caring for my grandmother motivated me to love aged people - Nwoye
Angela Egodi Nwoye is a staff of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) nominated as an unsung hero in recognition of her untiring efforts in mobile pension verification exercise across Nigeria. Nwoye, who is from Anambra State, says she is motivated by the need to help pensioners get their retirement benefits before they pass on.
How has it been working at PTAD? It has been a wonderful experience working at the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD). Achieve my goal and desire, I love working with PTAD because I have been with aged people since my childhood. So I have a passion for them. I have been taking care of aged and sick people in my community before I joined PTAD so I feel happy once again to continue with my destiny.
Every day I come to work, I perform my duty diligently. I feel happy attending to the pensioners/next of kin complaints. I follow up complaints forwarded to the operational departments and ensure timely resolution and payments, most especially complaints gotten from sick pensioners.
You have been actively involved in the verification of pensioners across the country? How is the experience?
Some of the pensioners could not comprehend the objective of the exercise for varying reasons; some due to mental health concerns. Sometimes one had to trek long distances on lonely trails to get to the pensioners in remote areas. The available means of transportation in some areas was irregular and unconventional. I had limited choices for travel. For example, I had to endure entering rickety and old public buses, traveling on bad and isolated roads.
The rainy season was not an ideal time for mobile verification in the Niger Delta region. I had to endure three hours of travel to/from on Okada under heavy rain to ensure that I got to Papa’s remote LGA to verify him. With focus on the objective of the exercise, I achieved the goal. He had mental health issues. He was minimally lucid, in/out of mental consciousness, and was barely coherent.
We learnt of your gallant contribution in mobile verification. Kindly share your experience?
The teams got to the various pensioners’ homes by all means of public transportation available; Okada, Keke Napep, public bus and where necessary by foot, just to ascertain that the primary objective remained in focus and achievable. I had to travel long grueling distances in some cases to reach the targeted pensioners for verification, most of who reside in remote villages. Reaching them was challenging at times, as the geographical land mass is broad and access roads to most of the areas are deplorable and inaccessible. We travel for hours on end on Okada and Keke Napep as the only means of transportation to get to some of these villages.
What motivated work so hard?
you to
I was motivated by my grandmother. As a little girl of 8 years, I left my parents in the city and decided to live with my aged grandmother in the village. I assisted her in all house chores, it was from her I developed special love for old people.
What is your perception of pensioner’s welfare in Nigeria?
There is pensioner’s welfare in Nigeria, but not properly managed. There is delay in payment of monthly pension before the coming of PTAD. Some pensioners were not proper placed on their levels and steps. There are cases of pension fraudsters; those people that misled pensioners and collect bribe to process their pension. There are also inaccuracies in calculation of monthly pension and gratuity and lack of adequate training for the personnel.
The coming of PTAD under the Defined Benefit Scheme in 2013, ended the collection of money from pensioners to resolve their issues; the issue of delay of their monthly pension also ended. PTAD doesn’t stress pensioners to travel down to Abuja before their complaints will be resolved.