...Urges President to address citizens' hunger, anger
By RhemDy News
Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed the insinuation by Preident Bola Tinubu regarding Federal Government Pension backlog, describing it as unnecessary ghosting and futile political shadow-chasing.
The Atiku Media Office, in a statement on Friday in response to President Tinubu, described as "untenable frivolity the disguised brickbat" by the President to visiting North-East political stakeholders led by Governor Babagana Zulum, where he blamed pension problems in the country on the former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku's government.
Recall that Obasanjo led Nigeria as its elected president between May 29, 1999 and May 29, 2007, serving a two-term tenure of eight years.
Atiku maintained that Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) administration should seek more knowledge about good governance and developmental communication.
"Government is a continuum. The present helmsmen cannot continue to waste valuable national time and resources on ghosting and blaming past administrations. A successor must inherit assets and liabilities," Atiku insisted.
The media office reminded that when President Olusegun Obasanjo/Atiku Abubakar took office in 1999, they inherited a broken, unfunded, and non-contributory Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) that had accumulated an unsustainable pension liability deficit estimated at over ₦2 trillion (about 25% of the country's GDP at the time).
"They did not embark on calling out their predecessors but rolled their sleeves to turn around the situation.
"But by the time Obasanjo/Atiku left office in 2007, their administration had completely revolutionised the sector by enacting the Pension Reform Act of 2004, leaving behind a fully funded, privately managed Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) regulated by the newly established National Pension Commission (PenCom)," Atiku said.
He added, "As could be recalled, the old Pay-As-You-Go model relied purely on annual budgetary allocations, which were severely underfunded and generated massive arrear backlogs.
"The pension administration preceding the Obasanjo/Atiku era was highly fragmented across various government agencies, plagued by ghost pensioners, data inaccuracies, and severe bureaucratic delays."
The former Vice President also recall that many private sector employees completely lacked pension coverage, and the few existing schemes were mismanaged or entirely unfunded before their regime.
He maintained that when the Obasanjo/Atiku administration left office in 2007, it was to their credit and benefit of pensioners that they left behind the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004, which he described as a landmark law modeled after international best practices which completely overhauled the country's retirement architecture.
Atiku also added that the Obasanjo/Atiku administration introduced a mandatory system where both employers and employees contribute a minimum percentage of basic salary into individual Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs).
He described as mischievous for Tinubu not to acknowledge that the Obasanjo/Atiku government left behind a robust regulatory authority, the National Pension Commission (PenCom), to supervise the sector and shield it from political interference.
"They institutionalised the use of private Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) to invest funds and Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs) to warehouse assets safely.
"By shifting future liabilities to a fully funded framework, their reforms stopped the accumulation of new un-backed state debts. This foundation laid the groundwork for Nigeria's modern pension assets, which have since ballooned into tens of trillions of naira," the ADC presidential flagbearer said.
"This is what Tinubu should be building upon and not quarrelling with his tools like a bad farmer," Atiku advised.
The statement stressed that it was also on record that the Obasanjo/Atiku administration laid the foundation for the liberalisation and globalisation of the Nigerian economy by paying off all foreign loans, creating conducive environments for business and infrastructure developments in banking, telecommunication, hospitality and other sectors.
"Tinubu should focus on resetting the salient issues of hunger and anger in the land, mostly caused by unabated insecurity, alarming mass youth unemployment, broken-down economy, strangulating social environment and wanton destruction of the nation's political fabrics," Atiku advised.
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