Kaduna: The National Union of Pensioners (NUP) has appealed to Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State to address the N20 billion outstanding pension liabilities owed to its members. The call was made by the State Secretary of the union, Alhassan Balarabe-Musa, during a commentary on the 2025 International Workers’ Day.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Balarabe-Musa highlighted that the Sani administration inherited over N30 billion in pension liabilities upon its inauguration on May 29, 2023. He acknowledged that Governor Sani has paid over N3.6 billion in 2023, with a total of over N10.4 billion settled to date. While expressing gratitude for the payments made, Balarabe-Musa urged for increased efforts to resolve the remaining liabilities.
Balarabe-Musa also pointed out that individuals under the contributory pension scheme have not received payments from 2017 onwards. He noted that workers disengaged in 2017, particularly those from local government councils, have yet to be paid due to missing records. He urged Governor Sani to take necessary actions to ensure these pensioners receive their entitlements, emphasizing the need for such payments to alleviate their financial hardships.
Additionally, Balarabe-Musa advocated for the implementation of the N32,000 pension increase approved by the Federal Government, which would raise the minimum monthly pension to N62,000 for pensioners in the state. He encouraged Governor Sani to follow the example of Yobe, the only state to have implemented this increase thus far, and to emulate his predecessor, who implemented the N30,000 minimum pension in February 2020.
The NUP secretary also requested that the governor provide a bus and a plot of land for the construction of a new State Secretariat. He highlighted the sale of 15 houses at the Marafa Estate in Kaduna city at the end of the Nasir El-Rufai administration, alleging that the sale violated due process regulations and was conducted at an undervalued price of N200 million without records of the transaction. Balarabe-Musa called for an investigation into these sales, urging the governor to revoke them and retrieve the properties for the NUP, while noting that vehicles were provided to all trade unions except the NUP.
