Atiku faults Tinubu for blaming past govt over pension crisis

The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s comments on the Federal Government pension backlog as “unnecessary ghosting and futile political shadow chasing by an inept APC-led administration.”

The Atiku Media Office, in a statement on Friday, described as “untenable frivolity” the remarks made by the President to visiting Northeast stakeholders led by Governor Babagana Zulum, where he blamed the country’s pension problems on the Obasanjo/Atiku government that left office almost two decades ago.

“Both President Tinubu and his inept APC administration should seek more knowledge about good governance and developmental communication. Government is a continuum.

“The present helmsmen cannot continue to waste valuable national time and resources on ghosting and blaming past administrations. A successor must inherit assets and liabilities,” Atiku said.

The ADC candidate recalled that when the Obasanjo/Atiku administration took office in 1999, it inherited a broken, unfunded, and non-contributory Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) with an unsustainable pension liability deficit estimated at over ₦2 trillion — about 25% of the country’s GDP at the time.

“We did not embark on calling out our predecessors but rolled our sleeves to turn around the situation,” the statement said.

According to the Atiku Media Office, by 2007 the administration had enacted the Pension Reform Act of 2004, leaving behind a fully funded, privately managed Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) regulated by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).

It explained that the old Pay-As-You-Go model relied purely on annual budgetary allocations which were severely underfunded and created massive arrears. The system was also fragmented, plagued by ghost pensioners, data inaccuracies and bureaucratic delays. Many private sector workers had no coverage at all.

“But by the time Obasanjo/Atiku left office in 2007, their administration had completely revolutionised the sector,” the statement noted.

“By shifting future liabilities to a fully funded framework, their reforms stopped the accumulation of new un-backed state debts. This foundation laid the groundwork for Nigeria’s modern pension assets, which have since ballooned into tens of trillions of naira,” it added.

The Atiku office accused Tinubu of being “mischievous” for not acknowledging the reforms, and advised him to focus on governance instead.

“This is what Tinubu should be building upon and not quarrelling with his tools like a bad farmer,” Atiku advised.

The statement also reminded that the Obasanjo/Atiku era laid the foundation for liberalising the economy, paying off foreign loans, and creating enabling environments in banking, telecoms, hospitality and other sectors.

Atiku urged the President to address pressing national issues rather than blame the past.

“Tinubu should focus on resetting the salient issues of hunger and anger in the land, mostly caused by unabated insecurity, alarming mass youth unemployment, broken-down economy, strangulating social environment and wanton destruction of the nation’s political fabrics,” he said.