The Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf in North West Nigeria and his counterpart of Niger State in North Central Nigeria Umar Bago have pledged to ensure consistent policies aimed at improving lives of pensioners in their respective states.
The commitments were made in Kano, at the 12th Quadrennial National Delegate Conference of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) who honored the Governors for their outstanding contributions to the welfare of pensioners.
Governor Yusuf represented by his Deputy Aminu Abdussalam, identified the conference as a defining moment for reflection, policy articulation, and institutional renewal coming at a time when the Nigerian worker and pensioner alike were faced with myriad socio-economic challenges.
Pensioners welfare
He advocated for bold, people-centred leadership and policies across all tiers of government to improve workers and pensioners welfare.
“Our administration has successfully settled a substantial backlog of outstanding retirement benefits totalling Sixteen Billion Naira (N16 Billion),” he said.
Governor Yusuf promised that his administration is in the process of remitting additional billions of naira to pensioners to reduce the backlog of retirement benefits.
Niger State Governor Umar Bago promised to accord pension administration the maximum attention it deserves.
He said, “this award signifies the need for us to improve the pension administration in Niger State and in Nigeria at large.”
As a farmer, Governor Bago said his government would open the NUP farms for pensioners in Niger State.
He said, “this is going to be a demonstration farm for all the pensioners in this country. With agriculture, you don’t even need to worry about pension board, because you can sustain yourself and your family.
“We have mechanisation, we have irrigation, we have technology that has eased faming. And that is why I call myself the farmer. And the inspiration for becoming a farmer is not far from the fact that food security is number one.”
The President of Nigeria Union of Pensioners NUP, Mazi Godwin Abumisi, said the awards recognised governors’ contributions to the welfare of senior citizens.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Joe Ajero, represented by Kabiru Ado described the conference as timely and urged participants to focus on enhancing senior citizens’ welfare.
Lateefah Ibrahim
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