₦airaland Forum

The presidential flag bearer of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has waved off the recent insinuation and innuendo by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in respect of Federal Government Pension backlog, as unnecessary ghosting and futile political shadow chasing by an inept APC-led administration.

The Atiku Media Office in a response on Friday described as untenable frivolity the disguised brickbat by the President to visiting Northeast political stakeholders led by Governor Babagana Zulum, where he blamed pension problems in the country on the Obasanjo/Atiku government that left office almost two decades before his.

“Both President Tinubu and his inept 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.

It 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 N2 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).” As could be recalled, the old Pay-As-You-Go model relied purely on annual budgetary allocations, which were severely underfund- ed 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.

Recall that many private sector employees completely lacked pension coverage, and the few existing schemes were mismanaged or entirely unfunded.

But 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, a landmark law modeled after international best practices which completely overhauled the country’s retirement architecture.

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).

It was mischievous of Tinubu not to acknowledge that

Sheuns:
APC will blame everyone but themselves for even problems they created.

yinkus6750:
Enacting is different from implementation and ensuring a corrupt free scheme.
I remembered the rot of the police pension scheme during OBJs regime.
Where 250k fine was judged for a 30 billion Naira pension fraud.
Atiku is really collecting from all fronts.

seunmsg:
You enacted the pension reform act but forgot to pay the actual pensioners their pension? What kind of senseless logic is that? Atiku and his supporters should be ashamed of themselves.

I don’t want a president that enacts a law but fail to implement. That’s as useless as not having a law at all. I prefer the president that implements all necessary laws for the good governance of the country.

Ofunaofu:
https://independent.ng/we-enacted-pension-reform-act-2004-stop-shadow-chasing-atiku-tells-tinubu/

Ofunaofu:
seunmsg, sometimes I genuinely wonder how you reason.

The Pension Reform Act was enacted in 2004 under the Obasanjo administration, when Atiku was Vice President. That administration left office in 2007. Since then, Nigeria has had three presidents, Yar'Adua, Jonathan, and Buhari, before Tinubu. Curiously, neither you nor the APC blamed any of those administrations for the shortcomings you're now attributing to Atiku.

Now that Tinubu is president, your argument suddenly becomes, Atiku enacted the law but failed to implement it. If implementation is your standard, why did you skip the three presidents after 2007 when Atiku as vice president left office?

Stop this ridiculous lame games its becoming stale

dododawa1:
Sowore is coming soon






2027

seunmsg:
You enacted the pension reform act but forgot to pay the actual pensioners their pension? What kind of senseless logic is that? Atiku and his supporters should be ashamed of themselves.

I don’t want a president that enacts a law but fail to implement. That’s as useless as not having a law at all. I prefer the president that implements all necessary laws for the good governance of the country.

ecolime:
Coming where?

Can Sowore win his ward?

Ofunaofu:
https://independent.ng/we-enacted-pension-reform-act-2004-stop-shadow-chasing-atiku-tells-tinubu/

sonofthunder:
Why didn't Atiku and Obasanjo implement it?

Ofunaofu:
seunmsg, sometimes I genuinely wonder how you reason.

The Pension Reform Act was enacted in 2004 under the Obasanjo administration, when Atiku was Vice President. That administration left office in 2007. Since then, Nigeria has had three presidents, Yar'Adua, Jonathan, and Buhari, before Tinubu. Curiously, neither you nor the APC blamed any of those administrations for the shortcomings you're now attributing to Atiku.

Now that Tinubu is president, your argument suddenly becomes, Atiku enacted the law but failed to implement it. If implementation is your standard, why did you skip the three presidents after 2007 when Atiku as vice president left office?

Stop this ridiculous lame games its becoming stale

Guestmale:
They enacted a law in 2004 and left government in 2007 that is good three years.

Haa so three years was too short to implement it.

Ofunaofu:
That is exactly the question you should be asking the successive governments between 2007 and 2023 before Tinubu took over.

Are 16 years under Yar'Adua, Jonathan, and Buhari not enough time to implement, improve, or amend the Pension Reform Act if it had shortcomings?

Government is a continuum. You cannot ignore three administrations and 16 years of responsibility, then suddenly make Atiku the only person accountable for the none implementation of the pension reform act

Ofunaofu:
https://independent.ng/we-enacted-pension-reform-act-2004-stop-shadow-chasing-atiku-tells-tinubu/

Guestmale:
My dear friend stop defending indefensible,for a whole three years they didn't implement it, even if it was toward the end of their regime. If they had started implementation, don't you think it will be difficult for the succeeding regime to stop it.

Ofunaofu:
The irony is that you are accusing me of defending the indefensible while actually doing exactly that , defending a regime’s attempt to rewrite history and shift responsibility through blame games and shadow chasing.

Holding one person or one administration responsible while conveniently ignoring three successive governments and 16 years of opportunity to implement the pension reform act is not accountability; it is selective memory and shadow chasing

The real question remains: why is this Tinubu government still spending more energy searching for who to blame than explaining what it has done with the powers and resources it inherited?

seunmsg:
You enacted the pension reform act but forgot to pay the actual pensioners their pension? What kind of senseless logic is that? Atiku and his supporters should be ashamed of themselves.

I don’t want a president that enacts a law but fail to implement. That’s as useless as not having a law at all. I prefer the president that implements all necessary laws for the good governance of the country.

Ofunaofu:
The irony is that you are accusing me of defending the indefensible while actually doing exactly that , defending a regime’s attempt to rewrite history and shift responsibility through blame games and shadow chasing.

Holding one person or one administration responsible while conveniently ignoring three successive governments and 16 years of opportunity to implement the pension reform act is not accountability; it is selective memory and shadow chasing

The real question remains: why is this Tinubu government still spending more energy searching for who to blame than explaining what it has done with the powers and resources it inherited?

Otamendi99:
You are a joker, someone enacted a policy, but never implemented it. So he was called out for not doing it. You started asking why they didn't call out the successive govts and then leave who started it in the first place. Una go soon defend pregnant bread.

Sheuns:
APC will blame everyone but themselves for even problems they created.

Ofunaofu:
Have you also called out the Tinubu administration for the non-implementation of local government financial autonomy, especially in Osun state where the local government funds have withheld for over two years and counting

If you haven’t, then accusing others of selective accountability while ignoring current actions is exactly the hypocrisy, blame games, and shadow chasing you claim to oppose.

Accountability should not be applied only to previous governments when convenient. Government is a continuum, and every administration must answer for its own decisions, policies, and failures

Do that and you will be taken seriously

LegendHero:
Your life don sp0ill bro

LegendHero:
Your life don sp0ill bro

Ofunaofu:
The irony is that you are accusing me of defending the indefensible while actually doing exactly that , defending a regime’s attempt to rewrite history and shift responsibility through blame games and shadow chasing.

Holding one person or one administration responsible while conveniently ignoring three successive governments and 16 years of opportunity to implement the pension reform act is not accountability; it is selective memory and shadow chasing

The real question remains: why is this Tinubu government still spending more energy searching for who to blame than explaining what it has done with the powers and resources it inherited?