BY Oluseyi Awojulugbe
The proposed 2019 budget submitted before the national assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari earmarks N422 billion for pensioners.
Checks made by TheCable into the budget document showed that the military got the highest allocation at N171 billion while the civilian staff of the Defence Intelligence Academy got the lowest allocation at N224 million.
The presidency also included N22.86 billion in the budget for settling ex-staff of the now-defunct Nigeria Airways. In 2018, the federal government had paid N22.6 billion, which is 50% of the total entitlement meant for the staff.
The pension benefits of former presidents, vice presidents and military heads of states were pegged at N2.30 billion.
Here is a breakdown of the benefits due to pensioners as listed in the proposed 2019 budget.
| S/N | Department | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrears of 2017/2018 Pension and gratuity | N33.08bn |
| 2 | Nigeria Airways ex-staff | N22.68bn |
| 3 | Defence Intelligence Academy Civilian staff | N224mn |
| 4 | Medical retirees | N1.25bn |
| 5 | NELMCO pension | N16.6bn |
| 7 | DSS Pension | N13.73bn |
| 8 | Pre-1996 NRC pension | N2.25bn |
| 9 | Police pension/death benefits | N12.41bn |
| 10 | Civilian pension | N30.69bn |
| 11 | Military pension, death benefits, gratuities | N171bn |
| 12 | Universities pension | N14.34bn |
| 13 | Customs pension | N8.42bn |
| 14 | Railway/parastatal | N26.75bn |
| 15 | Retired perm sec, head of civil service | N5.50bn |
| 16 | Ex-presidents, VPs | N2.30bn |
| 17 | Arrears of pension liabilities, 33% increase | N60bn |
| 18 | NIA pension | N3.70bn |
The defunct national carrier has over 6000 staff who had to through a verification exercise in 2018 before 50% of their entitlements were paid.
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