Day Minister for Finance feted pensioners
On Thursday, February 7th, 2019, the Minister for Finance, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, hosted dozens of retirees of the Ministry to a befitting sendforth ceremony at the end of which each retiree received his or her Certificate of Service.
The event was unique. It has been on the planning board for at least four years. It was delayed, ironically, for lack of sufficient fund. But when it finally materalised, it was excellent in both organisation and execution. It went on smoothly and concluded some minutes ahead of the scheduled time, thanks to team work.
Hajiya Zainab, the Minister for Finance who implemented the payment of entitlements to the staff of Nigeria Airways Limited in the first few weeks after assuming office, spoke about the importance of retirees as elders in the society. She praised them for serving the nation, sacrificing most of their youthful and active lives to public service.
She said that given the gaps identified in the Civil Service, there could be occasional recourse to the huge pool of expertise, experience and knowledge of some of the retirees for the benefit of the country. Their knowledge should be shared whenever it is appropriate with those who are still in the service.
Hajiya Zainab Ahmed was visibly happy when she noticed the happiness and sense of genuine appreciation of the retirees on their faces. Many retirees attended the event along with their spouses and grandchildren. She acknowledged the presence of both the spouses and the grandchildren. She was so good that she did not complain against the occasional noise made by the excited grandchildren. The venue, the main Auditorium of the Ministry, was filled to capacity. Many happy attendees were standing throughout the coloruful occasion.
The respect and recognition she accorded the retirees and the nice words she expressed about them for retiring from the service after so many years with clean records, elicited a murmur of happiness throughout the auditorium. Their happy exit from the Federal Civil Service, while some civil servants exited as felons or suspects in committing financial crimes, especially theft of pension funds, accentuated the importance of her remark on clean records.
Some of the retirees discussed and praised the Contributory Pension Scheme for reducing the chances of raiding money voted for pensions.They were of the view that lending about 80 per cent of the retirement fund is excessive, regardless of the purpose of lending.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, who inherited the sendforth proposal for the event that emanated from the Human Resource Department of the Ministry, had been keenly determined to see it done. I can recollect that the proposal was regularly on the agenda of the Ministry’s top management meetings. Like all other permanent secretaries, staff welfare is among his responsibilities as the accounting officer for both human and other resources.
His background as a sibling of Alhaji Isa Dutse, one of the most respected civil servants that nurtured Kano State when it was created and retired without blemish, probably contributed in moulding him to have genuine respect and admiration for civil servants. He would often try in vain to hide his sympathy and empathy whenever he hears the cries of unpaid pensioners.
That is partly why whenever pensioners’ cases are committed for processing through the bureaucratic mill, he monitors their progress in the system. This monitoring leads to timely and logical conclusion of such cases.
The Chairman of the labour unions in the Ministry praised the Minister for her positive attitude to staff welfare, commended the Permanent Secretary for engendering a mutually beneficial relationship with labour and congratulated the retirees for exiting the service peacefully.
I delivered the vote of thanks on behalf of the retirees. I thanked the Minister and the Permanent Secretary for honouring us and issuing certificate of service to all the retirees.