Senate has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the current financial challenges being faced by pensioners in the country by redeeming all Federal Government pension indebtedness amounting to about N174 billion.
The legislative body made the call during plenary on Tuesday,
It expressed confidence that “if the Federal Government could release bailout funds to pay outstanding workers’ salaries in the states, similar gesture should be employed for the payment of pension arrears, which is its direct primary responsibility.”
This followed a motion by Emmanuel Paulker, titled ‘Untold hardship of pensioners occasioned by Federal Government’s failure to contribute its statutory share of 5 percent to the Pension Redemption Fund’.
Paulker, while leading debate on the motion, noted with serious concern the untold hardship our retired senior citizens occasioned by the non-payment of their pension arrears since 2015.
He added that pensioners under 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 percent to the Pension Redemption Fund in line with the Pension Reform Act, 2004 amounting to a total sum of N285, 946, 669, 881.
The lawmaker expressed regret that of the N50billion appropriated in 2016 to off set part of the pension arrears, only a paltry sum of N18billion was released.
He further lamented that the pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) which include the Police Pensions, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigerian Prisons Service, Civil Service and other parastatals are yet to be paid their 33 per cent accrued arrears amounting to N174billion.
“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”, he said.
Paulker therefore warned that if urgent steps are not taken to pay the outstanding arrears within the current fiscal year, the much applauded Contributory Pension Scheme may collapse, leading to unimaginable consequences for the pensioners and the country in general.
In their contributions, Senators James Manager (PDP, Delta South), Yahaya Abdullahi (APC, Kebbi North) and Chukwuka Utazi (PDP, Enugu North), stressed the need for the government to always give priority attention to the payment of pensions for the retired citizens with a view to making life bearable for them.
They decried the situations whereby pensioners are being allowed to suffer after 35 years of meritorious service to their fatherland, and therefore called for the establishment of special funds for the regular payment of the pensions as at when due.
In his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki assured that the National Assembly would use its legislative powers to intervene so as to alleviate the sufferings of senior citizens.
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