Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has urged the
\nexecutive to ensure that all backlog of pension payments are made
\npromptly, adding that no excuse will be accepted for failure to do so.<\/p>\n
Dogara gave this charge on Thursday after the minister of Finance, Kemi
\nAdeosun and that of Budget and Planning, Sen Udoma Udo Udoma, briefed the
\nHouse on efforts made so far to offset arrears owed to Nigerian
\npensioners.<\/p>\n
The Speaker said he was confident of the promise made by President
\nMuhammadu Buhari that issues surrounding non-payment of pensions to
\nretired Federal civil servants will be addressed.
\nThe Speaker recalled that when President Buhari\u00a0 made a promise to provide
\nbailout funds to states for payment of backlog of salaries, he endured
\nthat it was done.<\/p>\n
He said, “We will not accept any excuse that leaves\u00a0 part of this pension
\nfunds hanging. When the President made a commitment that he was going to
\nrelease money for bailout to States so that they can pay backlog of
\nsalaries and pensions, it happened, even though we were in the midst of a
\nvery biting recession. Now the President has said this issue of pension
\nmust be solved.
\n“I don’t know where you got the money to bail out the states from,
\nwherever you got the money from, that is where we are going to get the
\nmoney to solve this problem. And for the ministers who are representatives
\nof the president, I believe you won’t make him (Buhari)
\nbreak his words because his words are cherished. I want to believe this
\nwill be the last intervention we will be having with regards to the issue
\nof pensions in this country. That is my charge.
\n“The message the House will be sending to the President through the
\nMinisters is, when you meet him to brief him about this engagement, just
\ntell him that we have taken his words to the bank and we believe that we
\nwill cash it.”<\/p>\n
In his remarks, president of National Union of Pensioners (NUP), Dr Abel
\nAfolayan, thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, Speaker Dogara and the House
\nof Representatives for listening to their issues and taking action.<\/p>\n
He, however, appealed to the executive to speedily pay the 33 percent
\narrears, preferably within a month, especially as police pensioners were
\npaid for 3 months out of 42 and they cannot protest in or out of service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has urged the executive to ensure that all backlog of pension payments are made promptly, adding that no excuse will be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n