‘I was shocked to be told my husband’s pension was N47’

Weekend Magazine: How did you feel when you were told that your late husband’s pension was   N47 only? Mrs. Victoria Audu: All I could say is I reject it. I thought it was a part of the same old thing against the man. That subtle discrimination that throughout the time we have been in the […]

Weekend Magazine: How did you feel when you were told that your late husband’s pension was   N47 only?

Mrs. Victoria Audu: All I could say is I reject it. I thought it was a part of the same old thing against the man. That subtle discrimination that throughout the time we have been in the North, existed. When he was very ill we tried to send him abroad. We couldn’t afford the 150,000 dollars and I thought it would be something easy, if not the country, the state could at least cover the bill, but all the then governor gave was one million naira.  I wanted to reject it but daddy said ‘no’, that we could at least use it for our ticket. President Olusegun Obasanjo gave us his own personal donation.  This was why we could go early. By the time we were eventually able to go, it was too late for the surgery. I believed that it was time for God to take him and He did.

One of my older daughters was moved by the attitude of the state that she wrote an article where she stated her conviction that if her father had been a Muslim it’s not one million naira that the state would have given him. If the governor had given ten million even as a loan we would have paid back over time and the state would not have collapsed. In my view I think it is all the subtle discrimination he experienced in his life time.

A lawyer friend of his, when they were working out his entitlements, told them that they didn’t do it correctly. He asked them why they were treating me that way and somebody said, “well he was never one of us”. This happened at the ABU pension office.

As much as I hate to put it this way, it felt ‘okay’ for them to discriminate while he was alive, but to take it   to his death, I thought it was very bizarre. For days I couldn’t get over it. I thought it was a joke. We were married for 47 years. So, I said to myself ‘are they giving us one naira for every year of the 47 years?

I requested that the file be brought out. Some of the documents   I had seen before were no longer there. I think it was the accountant in charge who said he was going to work out everything. This was last December.  After the holidays and strike, some of the pensioners went on my behalf and they said there was no money for them. It was then that I was told that the Senate had set up a committee to look into pensions.

At that point I resolved that there was no need to pursue t and asked God to fight it for me. They had told me before that I had a balance of N4.4million. Then suddenly there is nothing. I said if somebody has taken the money, I am a prayer woman and the word of God says that he who cheats a widow his wife will also become a widow. I have asked God to take it over. The wages of my husband that hd not been paid in his pension is crying out to God and He will hear and answer.

It was at this point I really began to take note of all the looting and cheating…. It is so sickening.

My children have said it is their heritage and they will fight for it. They have said they are as much Northerners as anybody else, though their mother may not be a Northerner.

You had received N3 million with the aid of President Obasanjo in … (cuts in)

I had asked for the money to enable me rebuild some part of his hospital that had collapsed as a result of the heavy rains that year. I applied, thinking it would be a quick fix, But after three months I didn’t hear anything. I petitioned President Obasanjo. He gave me audience and instructed that the money be paid. They didn’t have enough so they gave me three million and some change.

I gave the money to the contractor. The amount of work the money could take care of is the point where the work has stopped.

In 2010, while waiting to get the balance of the pension, I had heard that another widow in a similar situation had written to the Vice Chancellor, asking for a loan which could be deducted from her husband’s pension when it was ready.

Like her, I also wrote asking for N4million loan. The VC passed it on to the Bursar, but it was rejected. Somebody at the ABU pension office informed me that there was 390,000  or there about not added to the N4.4m. So I wrote for that and received it.

I asked if it was all I was getting as I needed about N2million to finish   the work. I was told that everything else had been forwarded to Abuja.

I was given a contact at  the PENCOM office in Abuja who was absent at the time. I proceeded to the Accountant General’s office. He rang the PENCOM office and spoke to a lady who said, “right now we are dealing with money for the living. When we finish that, we will come to the dead.” I asked if we would get it for Christmas, I was told no, because it has to be after the next budget. I was thinking that after the2011 budget, it would materialize, but nothing did. So far, we had done three screenings.

From the Ishaya Audu Foundation, we took money to rebuild the hostel for children from the villages that Daddy took care of and educated. All the governors who made pledges when the foundation was launched never redeemed their pledges.

This is the reason I went back to Abuja last December. I was even joking with the person I met there, saying it should have gathered some interest now. You can imagine my state of mind and expectations and how it hit me when I was told it was only N47. I was told their calculation was based on figures sent in by ABU. Going back to ABU I was told that it was N47.

My belief is my husband has money there and somebody is sitting on it.

If he were to be around, what do you think your husband would say about all this?

Hmmmm….. Like a typical Hausa man, he would say “Allah ya isa.” This is all he would say.

You said he suffered discrimination. What do you think was responsible?

I think it was because he was a Christian. Late Abiola wanted him as running mate. A group spoke to me to accept the offer, but he just wanted to lead a quite life and was not interested.

Abiola said he would meet some Northern elders to speak with my husband. What got back to me was that they had said they didn’t want him, not because he was a bad man, but because ‘he would not chop and would not let them chop’. I put it exactly as I was told.

He was very forceful spiritually. He would pray over a matter for two hours. I would wake up at midnight and watch him at it saying to myself, ‘God is very patient o listening to this man’.

With the recent scandals rocking the  PENCOM, what do you say in the light of your experience?

His is a small issue compared to many others, but what I say is the cries of those they have cheated is what is hounding them and they will get justice from God.

How would you describe your 47 years together?

I had a very, very bad temper. What saved our marriage the first ten years was the fact that my husband was a born again. He knew God and he was praying for me until I became born again and then began to complain that I was too born again. We had a very good marriage especially in the last 20 years with ups and downs and the uncertainties with his career.

We are on official duty and saw it over the television that we had been retired. You want to return and you are told that it is not in the best interest of the nation for you to return. So with all these turbulence, we relied on each other for support.

I miss him especially in the evenings. We shared a very close friendship and in his later years we grew closer and closer.