The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has accepted blame over the Federal Government's failure to pay Nigerian pensioners.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, on Wednesday accepted that the Government of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed Nigerian pensioners for failing to pay them their benefits as at when due.
This comes as many of the pensioners have died while waiting to be paid their dues under the Defined Benefit Scheme and the Contributory Pension Scheme. Both schemes have been poorly funded by the government.
“The failure is on all of us; those of us in the legislature and those in the executive.
“I will not say the executive alone. All of us failed and we must accept the responsibility.
“I will accept the blame on behalf of the government and apologise to pensioners”, Dogara said.
The Speaker said this while interacting with a delegation of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners led by the National President, Dr. Abel Afoloyan. Afoloyan said they came to the House as a last resort, having exhausted all avenues to get the government to pay pension benefits.
The speaker assured the elderly retirees that the House would take practical steps as from Thursday (today) by passing a resolution to summon top officials of the government to give explanations.
Speaking earlier, Afoloyan painted a pathetic picture of the pain of the pensioners.
“Pensioners have become endangered species and prone to all kinds of diseases, which are age-related and need money for treatment”, he told Dogara.