Meanwhile, federal pensioners have lodged a passionate appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to speedily approve the upward review of the federal pensions, as the harsh economic realities in the country were worsening the degradation of their quality of life.
Chairman, South West Zonal Congress of Federal Pensioners in Federal Colleges of Education, Dr Stephen Fatusin, who spoke in Abuja, lamented that the current situation of pensioners was so bad that some earn as low as N8,000 per month or even less. He noted that increasing their earnings would go a long way to alleviate the untold hardship of the poor and old pensioners, many of whom have no other source of income. According to him, “We must confess that the current administration has been one of the very best among the various governments in this country as regards its disposition to the plight of pensioners.
“Moreover, the organisation set up to take care of pensioners’ welfare, the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) is now staffed with worthy directors who are honest, hardworking and sensitive to the plight of pensioners unlike earlier ones. “With this array of problems, we need to sound a stringent outcry for Mr President to hear our plight and act. Let him kindly borrow a leave from the practices in the more advanced countries where pensioners’ welfare is given a pride of place in the scheme of things.”