Approve bailout for FG’s N174bn pension arrears, Senate urges Buhari

The Senate on Tuesday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to approve bailout fund to tackle the challenges being faced by pensioners in the country.

The upper chamber said the fund will help clear Federal Government pension arrears amounting to about N174bn.

The motion titled ‘The Untold Hardship of Pensioners Occasioned by Federal Government’s Failure to Contribute Its Statutory Share of Five Per Cent to the Pension Redemption Fund’ was moved by Senator Emmanuel Paulker.

Paulker said the Senate noted the hardship of retired senior citizens caused by nonpayment of their pension arrears since 2015.

He said just as bailout funds are released for the payment of workers in various states, similar gesture should be employed for the payment of pension arrears, “which is the direct primary responsibility of the Federal Government.”

He prayed the Senate to “urge leadership of the National Assembly to liaise with Mr. President to intervene in the current pension scheme financial challenges by providing a bailout fund to redeem all Federal Government pension indebtedness.”

Paulker said, “The Senate is concerned that pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme, who retired since 2015, have not been paid their pensions due to the failure of the Federal Government to contribute its statutory share of 5 per cent to the Pension Redemption Fund in line with the Pension Reform Act, 2004 amounting to a total sum of N285,946,669,881.

“It is aware that N50bn Naira was appropriated in 2016 to upset part of the pension arrears but only a paltry sum of N18bn was released.

“The Senate is concerned also that pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme, which include the Nigeria Police, the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigerian Prisons Service, Civil Service and other parastatals, have yet to be paid their 33 per cent accrued arrears amounting to about N174bn.

“It is worried that the delay in payment of pension arrears has put pensioners across the country in a very precarious situations where they wallow in penury, sickness, hopelessness and regret for serving their fatherland diligently, only to be abandoned by the government upon retirement.”

The lawmakers unanimously agreed to the motion.

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