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From Molly Kilete, Abuja
Military Veterans have appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to review the salaries and pensions payments of serving and retired personnel periodically to conform with the harsh economic conditions in the country.
Chairman of the veterans Committee, Air Commodore Isaac Olufemi Oguntuyi (Rtd), who made the call, said the new salary structure must also reflect a bridge of the wide disparity between all ranks and subsequently, an appropriate increase has to be effected across board”.
Oguntuyi, at a media briefing held in Abuja, also called on President Tinubu, to direct the approval of bulk payment of the balance of Security Debarment Allowance(SDA), to all veterans using equal and equitable payment template for all, regardless of the year they retired from service.
The chairman while noting that the payment of palliatives promised all veterans by President Tinubu would be paid by the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs between the end of this month January and latest by the end week of February assuring retired veterans that the current crisis involving the minister, Betta Edu will not affect payment of the palliatives already approved by the President, urged the national assembly to pass the Veterans Federation of Nigeria bill, with the establishment of the Veteran Affairs Commission, with a Director General (DG) who must be a retired officer, not below the rank of a Brigadier General or equivalent from the Navy or Air Force.
He said the initial non implementation/payment of SDA to majority of the veterans was mainly due to the wrong interpretation of the manual of financial administration (MAFA) 2017 for the armed forces of Nigeria which was graciously rectified for the benefit of all retirees.
According to him, “The veterans associations appreciate the gesture of the former President in the approval of over N134billion for SDA to be paid to all categories of the deserving veterans. It is also noteworthy that so far, only four tranches of the payment of the SDA have been made. For this, the veteran’s community is eternally grateful. However, the template used to compute the SDA for veterans who retired before 2010 was unjust, making some of them to receive very paltry amounts as their share”.
He said “In respect of this SDA payment, we are happy to inform the veterans that the Minister of Defence has promised to seek Mr. President’s approval for the release of funds to the Military Pensions Board in other to effect implementation.
Continuing, Oguntuyi, said “The military Pensions Board has completed the calculation of the needed shortfalls for the bulk payment of the remaining SDA using the same template for all veterans regardless of retirement year.
