We Have Put A Stop To Dehumanisation Of Pensioners, Says President Buhari.

President Muhammadu Buhari Friday in Abuja said his
administration has put a stop to the dehumanization of federal
pensioners by ensuring they were paid their entitlements and
backlog of arrears as at when due.

The President spoke when he received a delegation of Nigeria
Union of Pensioners led by the acting president, Comrade Musa Ayuba
Dallatu, at State House.

President Buhari declared that the welfare of pensioners had
remained a priority for his administration since May 2015, noting
that the retirees deserve timely payment of their emoluments,
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 to address salary and pension arrears
including Paris Club refunds, even as he had authorised schemes for
the restoration of Niger Delta Steel Company pensioners, NITEL/MTEL
pensioners and Biafra Police war veterans pensioners.

Reviewing the actions taken so far by the administration in
connection with the pension industry, the President said the
Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) had saved N4.9
trillion per annum as a result 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 the President, under his watch, PTAD completed full
payment of N5.8 billion to police retirees in August 2018 while in
November 2018, N13.7 billion was paid to parastatal retirees and
N18 billion to civil service Pensioners.

‘‘These few examples testify to the 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 senior citizens,
thereby improving the confidence of the entire county in the
Government and its policies,’’ he said.

On the requests by the pensioners, including 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,
the President promised to do all within his powers to address them,
subject to the availability of funds.

The leader of the delegation had also sought the President’s
intervention on the five percent counterpart funding for the
payment of local government pensioners and retired primary school
teachers which was arbitrarily stopped in 2010.

Comrade Dallatu appealed for the payment of outstanding pension
arrears, gratuities and death benefits that have accrued over the
years, among others.

Commending President 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 it in so many areas, which
among others include regular payment of monthly pensions.

‘‘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.’

Ewache Ajefu Emerges as IMPR Chief Operating
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