Pensioners in Lagos State have called for a review of pension concurrently as salaries of workers are being increased.
They made the call at a day stakeholders meeting on a bill for a law to amend the Lagos State pension reform law amendment of 2018 organised by the Lagos State House of Assembly on Wednesday.
Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Oluremi Johnson lamented that the irregular noncompliance by past administrations had resulted in some pensioners in the state earning as little as N2500 and N3500 respectively monthly and that there should be an implementation of minimum pension and harmonization of pensions across board.
He explained further that in spite of commendable prompt and regular payment of pensions, there were still some grey areas that should be addressed by the State Government.
State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Funmi Sessi, in his comments, urged the State House of Assembly to beam their searchlight on agencies and parastatals and ensure that they pay the entitlements of pensioners.
Chairman of the House Committee on Establishments, Training, Pensions and Public Service, Hon. Oluyinka Ogundimu said that there is always the need to amend any law, noting that the beauty of it all is the flexibility of the laws being operated by the state government.
“There is no way we can get this done without the input of stakeholders, but that unfortunately they don’t show up and their contributions count.
” We need the opinions of stakeholders on this bill and we assure that whatever they say would be incorporated into the bill,” he said.
Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, who was represented by his Deputy, Wasiu Sanni- Eshinlokun said that the Bill became necessary as it is pertinent for the government to show care to civil servants while they are in service as they are key to the state government.
“We are ready to improve service conditions and also pay attention to the lives of civil servants after retirement.”
Also speaking, a civil servant Michael Odesanya urged the House to extend the retirement age of the less privileged in service to 65 years.
He noted that able-bodied civil servants could still do other things after retirement, which he said was impossible for the vulnerable.
Presenting the Bill, Majority Leader of the House, Hon Sanai Agunbiade said that further amendment to section 7 says “Professors covered by the Universities Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 2012 and political appointees whose terms and conditions of appointment so prescribes shall earn 100% of their terminal salary as pension for life.”
Also, an amendment to section 8 reads: A letter of confirmation of exit shall be issued by the employer 21 days prior to the employee’s retirement or exit from the Lagos State Public Service.
Mr Tunde Alayande from the National Pension Commission, Anuja said that there is a difference between pension and gratuity.
Alayande stated that while pensions are paid from Retirement Savings Account (RSA), gratuities area thank you packages from employers of labour.
He also said that social security programmes are different from pensions and that retirees ought to benefit from the programmes.
PIAK
