No fewer than 6,000 retirees of the moribund national carrier, Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL), have appealed to the Federal Government to return them to the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) like their counterparts in the other sectors of the economy.
According to them, their return to the DBS would enable them to get their pensions for life until they die.
The retirees under the platform of the Association of Airways Retired Workers of Nigeria (AARWN), also petitioned President Bola Tinubu, demanding for inclusion in the DBS, adding that the retired staff were prior to the liquidation of the carrier in 2004 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo were enrolled in the scheme.
The retirees alleged that they were controversially removed from the scheme by the government after the liquidation of the airline.
In the petition dated December 5, 2023 and addressed to President Tinubu, they claimed that pensioners are never paid off, but are paid till they die.
The pensioners also argued that the N45 billion severance package, which some of its members benefited from was part of their accumulated 10 years pension arrears suspended by the Federal Government after the liquidation of the carrier in 2004.
The petitioners are staff of NAL who had retired from the airline before the national carrier was liquidated by the government in 2004.
“The N45 billion paid to our members were part-payment of our accumulated pension arrears for over 10 years. We were on the monthly pension payroll before the liquidation in September 2004 with a retired letter.
“In pursuance to make sure that the pensioners are paid monthly pension, relevant government authorities have made interventions, directing that the pensioners be pay-rolled into the monthly pension scheme of the Federal Government,” the petition reads.
They also claimed that as a result of this the Senate held a public hearing on pensions matters in 2012 and that after thorough investigation, directed the authority concerned to immediately commence payment of pensions to the retirees of the airline.
Besides, the group also said that the House of Representatives in a letter addressed to the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, dated February 26, 2013, urged the Federal Government to immediately integrate the retirees of NAL into the monthly pension payroll of the government.
The former NAL staff stated that the House of Representatives in its investigation were able to establish that the Nigeria Airways pensioners were entitled to “pension for life.”
They complained that since the last payment of N45 billion to the entire former staff of the airline, they were in four years pension arrears from 2020-2024.
They appealed to the Federal Government mandate Pensions Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to handle the payment of whatever is approved for them, while also integrating the existing pensioners before liquidation into the monthly payroll, to resolve their problem once and for all.
Similarly, in another letter addressed to Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, dated May 20, 2024 and signed for on May 22, 2024 by the office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace, expressed displeasure over the attitudes of some staff of the ministry on their plights.
The letter to Keyamo signed by Stephen Onuh and Ahmed Sulugambari, the Chairman and Vice respectively, seeking an audience with the Minister to properly inform him of their plights and use the opportunity to express their displeasure over the attitudes of some of the staff of the Ministry to their predicaments.
The ex-NAL staff accused the office of the Deputy Director and the desk officers in the Ministry of denying them integration into the Federal Government’s monthly pension payroll, despite the interventions from all relevant government agencies.
The pensioner alleged that they had over the years written to the ministry, but the department in the ministry did not cooperate with them.
They claimed that they also wrote letters in September 3, 2015 and April 21, 2017 and December 18, 2023 but that they were not attended to.
The petitioners alleged that the action of the department was tantamount to sabotage and violation of Section 173 of the 1999 constitution, adding that it also amounted to sabotaging the minister and the Permanent Secretary who they said were making effort to right the wrongs of the past administration in the ministry.
“We humbly beseech you, sir, to consider granting us an audience to get a chance to present our matter directly. We propose to come as a delegation of two, being the Chairman and Vice Chairman of our association,” the petitioners requested.
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