Yar'Adua approves N69.3bn for pensioners

President Umaru Yar’Adua has approved the sum of N69.3 billion for the payment of pensions, in line with the five year review, as provided for in the 1999 Constitution.

Acting Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation,(SGF) Umaru Anbursa disclosed this yesterday, at a meeting with the House of Representatives’ Committee on Pensions chaired by Razak Adewusi.

Mr. Ambursa represented the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, whom he said had concluded plans to attend the meeting just before he was summoned to the Presidential Villa by Mr Yar’Adua.

Section 173 (3) of the constitution states that “pensions shall be reviewed every five years or together with any Federal civil service salary reviews, whichever is earlier.”

Mr. Ambursa said that Mr Yar’Adua was briefed on the last meeting of the stakeholders with the lawmakers in July, which arrived at N69.3 billion. He added that the president subsequently directed the Finance Minister Mansur Muhtar to include it in the budget.

Ready to pay

The permanent secretary assured the committee that the minister had included the figure in the 2010 Budget, which would soon be forwarded to the National Assembly.

“Even before the July meeting, the Office of the SGF had been working on this issue. After we held deliberations in July this year, we took the outcome to the President and told him what the constitution says.

A representation has been made to the President on the stakeholders’ meeting with the committee and the President was worried about it and said he was going to direct the Minister of Finance to incorporate it into the 2010 Budget. The amount was worked out and communicated to the Minister of Finance.

“I am assuring you that by the time the National Assembly receives the budget, this issue will be found there. We had thought of communicating this issue to the House before this meeting,” he said.

When asked by Mr. Adewusi if the money would be enough to take care of the payment of pensions next year as well as the arrears, Mr Ambursa affirmed that it would be enough, but added quickly that there might be problems during payments because of variations.

According to him, “We are sure that we are on the right path. The figures that we got from various departments are N69.3 billion. The figure includes arrears and takes care of the salary increases over the years.

"Give and take, there may be some variations here and there at the time of payment. I believe we should expect problems.” Mr Ambursa also told the lawmakers that the last review was done in 2000, adding that, that of 2005 was skipped.

Military pensioners

Also speaking, S.T Shuaibu, the acting permanent secretary in the Office of the Head of Service and the Director of Military Pensions Board, Bitrus Kwaji, a Brigadier General, confirmed that the amount proposed would be adequate.

He added that out of the N69.3 billion, a total of N17 billion was proposed for military pensioners.

A member of the committee, Patrick Obahiagbon (PDP, Edo), who lauded the federal government’s gesture, however,

warned government not to wait for another stakeholders’ meeting before carrying out the next review in accordance with the constitution.

Earlier, Mr. Adewusi had said that the issue of pensions returned to the front burner recently, adding that only two weeks ago, the House passed a resolution on the same issue, urging the concerned authorities of government to act promptly.

He said: “These efforts can be seen to underscore the seriousness and importance attached to these seemingly apparent breach of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the same executive branch that swore to uphold the constitution that binds all of us.”

The lawmaker added that the committee was concerned that despite all its efforts and assurances by representatives of the Federal Government, dating back to the first meeting with the former SGF, Babagana Kingibe, it was yet to be briefed by the new SGF nor communicated on actions taken so far.

“The legislature and indeed members of the committee on pensions cannot fold their arms and allow workers and pensioners denied of their constitutional rights,” Mr. Adewusi stated.