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.