Following the pronouncement by President Muhammadu Buhari to expand the palliative to additional one million poor Nigerians, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has advocates for the inclusion of her members who are greatly affected by the lockdown and the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to a statement signed by the General Secretary, Elder Actor Zal said the senior citizens should be given priority among the beneficiaries of the palliative as they are the most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic due to their old age.
Elder Zal however appealed to President Buhari , through the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, to think first of the pensioners as the government begins the distribution to the most vulnerable.
The union also appealed for the government to liase with the national swcretariat of the union in Abuja to ensure proper identification of genuine pensioners through her state and local government offices.
“The Nigeria union of pensioners (NUP) national headquarters has made a passionate appeal to the Federal Government to include Nigerian pensioners as beneficiaries in the palliatives to the vulnerable Nigerians, to cushion the effects of the lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic on the pensioners.
“pensioners are one of the most vulnerable in the country and therefore appealed to the presidential Task Force on covid -19 to liase with the union on how to get the palliative distribution to the real pensioners in all the nooks and crannies of the country.”
The NUP further said that her members cut across all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT abuja, as well as in all the 774 local governments in Nigeria.
“Therefore, the union is well entrenched to ensure the distribution of the palliatives to their members at the grassroots with limited hitch.” The statement added.
The union said it has also written to the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha and the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Managment and Socio Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Faruk, on the imperative of including the pensioners in the palliative.
