by Dolapo Adelana

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, says President Muhammadu Buhari is concerned about issues relating to pensioners.

Dogara, said this on Wednesday when he received a delegation from the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, led its president, Abel Afolayan.

He said it would be unconstitutional for public officials not to pay pensions.

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He said, “The president is a pensioner himself, he is and I know that he has always been concerned about issues related to salaries and pensions,” Dogara was quoted to have said.

“He has been so concerned that he has extended assistance to state governments to bail them out with funds to pay for salaries and pension at state levels and I believe having taken such steps he won’t be so unconcerned about his own responsibility to pensioners of the federal Republic.

“So, I believe there is a disconnect somewhere and that is what we have to connect now and to see that even if the last person in the state gets his salary and pension, if we don’t address our pensioners at the federal level, we have failed. and that message will be delivered by God’s grace.”

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The speaker said payment of pensions was a right and not a favour.

“If pension is a right and pensioners must be paid, it means that the federal government is indebted, it is in debt and if it is paid, the government is not doing a favour to anybody, we don’t even deserve any thanks because pension earned is a right,” he said.

Afolayan, appealed to the Speaker and his colleagues in the National Assembly to use their good offices to provide sufficient funds in the 2017 budget to offset the pension liabilities owed pensioners across the country.

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The union also appealed that pension should be put on first line charge to put an end to the traditional rigorous budgetary allocation process, and solicited assistance of the Speaker to facilitate the payment of outstanding 18 months arrears of the 33 percent pension increase.