By Nana Musa
THE MINISTER of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, says the federal government will soon begin payment of pension backlog.
Edun said this during a peaceful rally by the Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme Sector (NUPCPS) at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja on Tuesday.
“We will start next week to pay everything that we can under the current budget as approved by the National Assembly. What has happened now is that there is backlog in terms of contributions and there is a solution.
“There has been a committee under the Office of the Head of Service which has met the minister of budget, and I. We have a plan for dealing with the backlog under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
“We are committed to paying it. It has to be paid this year. We are committed to doing that starting from next week,” Edun said.
“We have to have a solution that takes care of everybody, and that is being worked on. It’s going to be a question of going to the capital market and raising an instrument that allows that backlog to be cleared once and for all.
“We are going to present to the president, a viable solution using the financial market taking care of the huge backlog under the CPS,” Edun added.
He reiterated federal government’s commitment to pensioners welfare. “I am not happy that you have had to take this step and I assure you that any time that you or your leaders seek audience with me, I will be available in the office.
“I was not aware of the Nov. 11 deadline, otherwise I will never have allowed a situation like this. In spite of your age, your situation in terms of cost of living, it costs money to come here. I would have avoided that as much as I could,” Edun said.
Speaking earlier during the protest, the National Chairman of NUPCPS, Mr Sylva Nwaiwu, said CPS had never benefited from any increment of the National Minimum Wage Act.
Nwaiwu said that the Federal Government had not released accrued rights for pensioners for over 20 months (since March 2023 till date).
“Our senior citizens are suffering, after using our youthful years to serve our father land and we get this in return. Please use your good office to help us. Some of our members are bedridden and some have died in the struggle.
“We cannot feed ourselves, take care of our family or take care of our medical bills anymore,” he said.
The chairman said that they had dropped several letters for the minister but none was acknowledged which made the union members to stage this peaceful rally.
Nwaiwu, however, commended the president for raising minimum wage.
Mrs Christiana Ubah, a pensioner, said that she retired in 2015 from the budget office of the federation, and could no longer feed herself. See how my face is, it is hunger.”
She complained that for six months, her pension had not been paid by African Alliance, saying that the government needs to come to our aid.
“Among us here are people that retired since march last year and have not been paid a kobo. look at how harsh the economy is because of our leaders.
“We do not have anything to live on now, every year they will tell us in the media that pension fund asset has increased, so why are pensioners not paid.
“We have a constitution in the country that every five years salaries will increase and pension will increase too. We want this reflected,” Ubah said. (NAN)
