Reps Won’t Accept Excuses For Non-payment Of Pensions – Dogara   

BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has said that no excuse will be accepted for failure to pay backlog of pension payments.
Dogara, who stated this on Thursday after the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, and that of Budget and Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, briefed the House on efforts made so far to offset arrears owed to Nigerian pensioners, said such payments should be made promptly.
 
The Speaker expressed confidence over the promise made by President Muhammadu Buhari that issues surrounding non-payment of pensions to retired Federal civil servants will be addressed.
 
He noted that when President Buhari made a promise to provide bailout funds to states for payment of backlog of salaries, he ensured that it was done. 
According to him; “We will not accept any excuse that leaves part of this pension funds hanging. When the President made a commitment that he was going to release money for bailout to States so that they can pay backlog of salaries and pensions, it happened, even though we were in the midst of a very biting recession. Now the President has said this issue of pension must be solved. 
“I don’t know where you got the money to bail out the states from, wherever you got the money from, that is where we are going to get the money to solve this problem. And for the ministers who are representatives of the president, I believe you won’t make him (Buhari) break his words because his words are cherished.
“I want to believe this will be the last intervention we will be having with regards to the issue of pensions in this country. That is my charge. 
 
“The message the House will be sending to the President through the Ministers is, when you meet him to brief him about this engagement, just tell him that we have taken his words to the bank and we believe that we will cash it.”
 
In his remarks, the president of the National Union of Pensioners (NUP), Dr Abel Afolayan, thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, Speaker Dogara and the House of Representatives for listening to their issues and taking action.
H,e however, appealed to the executive to speedily pay the 33 percent arrears, preferably within a month, especially as police pensioners were paid for three months out of 42 and they cannot protest in or out of service.