The president declared that the welfare of pensioners
had remained a priority for his administration since May 2015.
President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration has put a
stop to dehumanisation of Federal Government’s pensioners by ensuring
prompt payment of their entitlements and clearing the backlog of
arrears.
President Buhari stated this when he
received a delegation of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners led by its
Acting President, Comrade Musa Dallatu, at the State House, Abuja, on Friday.
The president declared that the welfare of pensioners had remained a priority for his administration since May 2015.
According
to him, the retirees deserve timely payment of their entitlements,
recognition and respect for their work and dedication to the country
during their active working years.
‘‘In recent times pensioners were ignored, neglected and even persecuted.
“We have put a stop to that. As you
yourselves have confirmed today, we have begun regular payment of
monthly pensions and payment of backlog of arrears.
‘‘The Federal Government released N45
billion accrued rights for the contributory pension scheme and N22.4
billion to start payment of ex-Nigeria Airways pensioners,’’ he said.
President Buhari told the pensioners that the
federal government also bailed out states by releasing Paris Club
refunds to them to enable them to clear salary and pension arrears.
He said he also authorised the schemes for the
restoration of pensions for retirees of Niger Delta Steel Company,
NITEL/MTEL as well as Biafra Police/Army.
While reviewing the actions taken so far by
the administration in the area of pension, the president said the
Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) had saved N4.9
trillion per annum.
President Buhari said this was as a result of
the introduction of payroll clean-up under the Civil Service
verification exercise.
He added that the directorate which supervised
the payment of pension arrears to over 50,000 verified civil service
pensioners, also oversaw the payment of N917.6 million to 432 war
retirees.
According to him, the PTAD completed full
payment of N5.8 billion to police retirees in August 2018 while three
months later, N13.7 billion was paid to parastatal retirees and N18
billion to civil service pensioners.
‘‘These few examples testify to
government’s positive impact on pensioners’ lives. In addition, we
achieved huge savings in budgetary provisions through the elimination of
ghost and duplicated details.
‘‘We have restored qualified pensioners
arbitrarily removed from the payroll, thus bringing succour and hope to
the senior citizens and improving the confidence of the entire county in
government and its policies,’’ he said.
On the requests by the pensioners, the
president promised to do all within his powers to address them, subject
to availability of funds.
The leader of the delegation had called for
the implementation of the National Policy on Pension Parity and the
National Policy on Social Security on Health and Other Related Matters
of the Elderly.
Dallatu, had also sought presidential
intervention on the five per cent counterpart funding for the payment of
Local Government pensioners and retired primary school teachers which
was arbitrarily stopped in 2010.
He also appealed for the payment of
outstanding pension arrears, gratuities and death benefits that had
accrued over the years, among others.
While commending Buhari on the regular payment of pensions, Dallatu said: ‘‘we are bold to say without fear or favour that you have made our lives better than you met them.
‘‘It is an incontestable fact that since
the advent of this government under your able leadership, payment of
monthly pensions has been more regular than ever.
“In fact, if the truth must be told, Mr President Sir, we have never had it so good.’’