N171bn for military, N22bn for Nigeria Airways… inside Buhari’s N422bn package for pensioners

The proposed 2019 budget submitted before the national assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari earmarks N422 billion for pensioners.
Checks 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.