‘Octogenarians still in employ of Bayelsa civil service’

The Bayelsa State government yesterday revealed that many persons between the ages of 80 and 85 years were found to have remained in the employ of its ministries, departments and agencies.

The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, made the revelation in Kaiama, headquarters of Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government during a town hall meeting in the area.

Stakeholders, including cabinet members, royal fathers, federal and state lawmakers, right groups and youth groups, had thronged the Kaiama to make input to the ongoing reforms in the civil service.

Iworiso-Markson said a situation whereby octogenarians failed to leave the stage for the youth to get employment was unacceptable, hence the government’s determination to change the narrative.

The commissioner described as abnormal the N500m paid monthly as pensions.

“The pension system in the state is as rotten as you can ever imagine. We are paying N500m monthly for pensions. It is only in Bayelsa that pensioners don’t die. And so, when you expect that the pension wage bill will come down, it remains at a level.

“In the pension sub-sector, Governor Seriake Dickson has taken the bull by the horn. Right now, committees will be going to all our communities with the support of everybody, particularly our monarchs, to identify those pensioners in the communities. We will now undertake pay-as-you-go so that the right pensioners will be captured,” he said.

Iworiso-Markson, who noted that reforms, all over the world, are painful but necessary, said the state government had introduced human face to it.