South-West Pensioners Decry Scrapping Of PTAD

MICHAEL-AZEEZ OGUNSIJI,

Abeokuta

The Nigeria Union of Pensioners, South-West has urged President Bola Tinubu not to scrap Pension Transitional Arrangements Directorate, PTAD.

The Pensioners said that scrapping PTAD will return them to what they described as “better forgotten dark days in Egypt where payment of their pensions and gratuities will be at the whims and caprices of larcenous civil servants”.

The Spokesman of the union, Dr Olusegun Abatan disclosed this on Thursday while briefing journalists after its zonal meeting held at the secretariat of the union in Leme, Abeokuta.

Dr. Abatan explained that the reported move to scrap PTAD which had since given the pensioners new lease of life is being attributed to the recommendation of Orosanye’s report whereas the pensioners said nothing of such is in the said Oronsaye’s report .

Highlighting the benefits of PTAD, Abatan said aside seamless payment of pensions and gratuities, it has also eliminated long queues of pensioners and even death during verification exercises among other dehumanising treatment the pensioners are subjected to in the time past.

The pensioners urged President Tinubu to avoid being ill-informed by some self-serving civil servants over the scrapping of PTAD saying that if at all PTAD will be scrapped it is a creation of law and must be repeal through same process by the National Assembly.

Abatan said “section 49 states that PTAD will cease to exist after the death of the last pensioner. We still have over a hundred thousand living Pensioners! PTAD already has a supervising Ministry, the Ministry of Finance, it is also being coordinated by PENCOM, so why do they want it scrapped if not for self-serving purposes by unconscionable civil servants?

“PTAD is the baby of the law birthed by the National Assembly on June 25, 2004. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should avoid being misinformed by rapacious civil servants.  To scrap it must go back to the National Assembly, any step taken to unilaterally scrap the PTAD without the imprimatur of the National Assembly is a violation of the law of the land and to that effect null and void and of no effect”.

The union also expressed its displeasure that the federal government has refused to pay pensioners N25,000 it promised them in the MOU signed with the labour in October 2023 as part of moves to ease pains  of fuel subsidy removal.

The pensioners equally appeal to government to do the needful and not discountenance the legitimate demands of NLC and TUC and make life meaningful for the citizenry.

It urged Federal Government to redeem this pledge and be more proactive in tackling the increasing economic hardship, particularly the growing hunger in the land warning that it will be foolhardy for the government to take street protests for entertainment “because an hungry man is an hungry man”.

As a way out of the food scarcity crisis the pensioners suggested to federal government to create Food Production Zones in each geo-political zone of the Country, embark on massive importation of agricultural machineries, equipments and agrochemicals while also opening up rural roads for agriculture among others.