The ongoing verification of retirees from some privatised Government owned Enterprises (GoEs) is further proof of President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to improving the well-being of senior citizens.
According to the Buhari Media Organization (BMO), the verification by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) is one of the steps towards settling pension claims of these retirees.
In a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, BMO noted that retirees and pensioners have been having a better treatment on President Buhari’s watch than in the previous years.
“Nigeria has had a bad tradition of abandoning pensioners to live in penury, but there is a clear paradigm shift since the onset of an administration that is committed to clearing backlog of pensions and terminal benefits.
“Only recently, in line with the government’s commitment to addressing the pensioners’ plight, PTAD began verifying about 7000 retirees in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“It is noteworthy that those being verified are retirees from the defunct Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), its mobile arm, MTEL, and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
“This shows how long ago some of these people were disengaged from work without getting paid for what is due them. Of course, these were the years Peoples Democratic party (PDP) ran the country.
“Now, after years of neglect, this President is demonstrating enough political will to ensure that the senior citizens and other retirees do not continue to suffer.”
The group said this is the first time in 20 years that any government would take clear steps to pay backlog of pension arrears of former federal public servants.
“Nigerians can easily recall how, in 2017, President Buhari approved payment of entitlements, including death benefits, to over 100 former Biafran policemen who were granted amnesty by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000, as well as the next-of-kin of deceased war veterans.
“It is also a fact that this administration also approved payment of N45 billion entitlements to former workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways who had initially been paid only a fraction of what was due them in 2008 by the government of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
“We are convinced that former staff of Aluminum Smelter Company (ALSCON) Ikot Abasi would soon have cause to smile over their unpaid 80% entitlement.
“This is because PTAD has been engaged in the verification of the workers of the company that was privatised by the Obasanjo administration,” it said.
BMO added that the Buhari administration deserves commendation for taking steps to redress decades of neglect of pensioners.