The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has commended President Bola Tinubu for approving N25,000 wage award as palliative for federal pensioners in the country.

Godwin Abumisi, National President of NUP, gave the commendation in an address to mark the 2023 Pensioners and Older Persons Day on Thursday in Abuja.

The theme for the celebration was, “Subsidy Removal and its Negative Effects on the Lives of the Pensioners/Older Persons.”

Mr Abumisi said the union was grateful to the government for its commitment to the welfare of the pensioners by approving the wage award to vulnerable pensioners.

“We trust that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs who is entrusted with the responsibility of handling the payment would expedite action on the payment.

“This is without further delay in order to assuage the pains and sufferings of the pensioners and the older persons,” he added.

He appealed to the government to extend the payment of the wage award from three to six months as was done for other regular workers.

The NUP president said that for any approved palliative to get to its members across board, government agencies should handle the disbursement.

He said such agencies must have accurate database records containing the account details of all pensioners for easy access and delivery such as PTAD, PENCOM, among others.

“We consider the above channels as effective, seamless means of getting across to our members with any form of palliative,” he said.

He noted that NUP members were faced with lingering challenges that needed immediate solutions.

Mr Abumisi said that the challenges included the non-harmonisation of pension and omission of 2015 pension review.

He listed other challenges as the non-payment of arrears of pension increment of 15 per cent, 33 per cent and the consequential adjustment of 2007, 2010 and 2019.

He said that another challenge was the non-release of the timely monthly accrued rights to the contributory pensioners which had brought upon them untold hardship.

According to him, the total accumulated accrued rights stand at about N140 billion.

“We hereby call on the Federal Government for its timely intervention to save the souls of this category of pensioners from untimely death,” he said.

He also appealed to the president to expedite action on the payment of the outstanding balance of N33 billion to Nigeria Airways workers.

(NAN)