President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally declared the commencement of the Minimum Pension Guarantee which has been on the drawing board since 2004.

President Tinubu, who was represented by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, made the declaration in Abuja on Tuesday at the Presidential Pension Security Initiative Launch.

The Pension Reform Act 2004 promised every contributor a guaranteed minimum pension. This promise was carried over again in the Pension Reform Act 2014 with the creation of a fund to pay for it.

Tinubu however lamented that the reforms were never implemented for more than two decades.

President Tinubu said that twenty-two years after “not one naira paid under that guarantee. Not one retiree given a floor. Not one government that stopped to ask what happens to a pensioner when the hospital bill arrives.”

Against this backdrop, President Tinubu said, “By the authority vested in me as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I hereby declare the Minimum Pension Guarantee commenced, with effect from today, to be administered by the National Pension Commission under the Pension Reform Act.”

“From this day, there is a floor beneath the Nigerian retiree. No one who contributed under the Contributory Pension Scheme will be allowed to fall below it.”

“Not because this government is generous. Because it is their right. And a serious country pays what it owes.”

“To every administration that comes after mine, hear me clearly. This floor is now part of the compact between the Nigerian State and the Nigerian worker. Raise it. Never remove it. But a pension is more than a payslip.”

“Ask any Nigerian what finished their father’s pension. It was not food. It was not rent. It was the hospital. One illness at sixty-eight can swallow forty years of savings and leave the children to carry what remains. A pension that cannot pay for medicine is not a pension. It is a receipt.”

President Tinubu also launched another scheme called PenCare to be funded by the pension industry itself.

According to Tinubu, PenCare gives low-income retirees access to essential healthcare, without charge.

“In a few moments, I will place the first PenCare Health Access Cards into the hands of our pioneer beneficiaries.”

“For the first time in our history, the Nigerian retiree holds two things at once. An income that cannot fall below a floor. And a card that opens the door of a hospital.”

“That is social security. This country talked about it for sixty years. We stopped talking. We started it. And we started it for the ordinary Nigerian,” Tinubu said.

The President indicted those in previous governments who did nothing to implement the reforms as contained in the Pension Act but now aspiring to govern again.

“Do not listen to what they promise. Promises are free. Look at what they did when they held power. And they did hold power. Some of them were Governors. One of them was Vice President of this country for eight years.”

“So let them answer three questions. Which retiree did you guarantee? Which pensioner did you insure? Which floor did you build?”

“They had the power. They had the workers. They had the law. Where is the record? And the big idea they have brought to this election? Bring back the subsidy.”

“That is not a policy. That is a memory. Bring it back, and they take that ninety-three per cent away from your states, away from your roads, and away from your pensioners,” he said.

Tinubu urged the people to judge him by his record of performance, “Judge me by my record. As Governor of Lagos State, when our local government allocations were withheld, the state did not collapse. It grew.”

“And as President? Arrears: paid. Pensions: raised. Credit: opened. A floor: built. A hospital door: unlocked. They have promises. We have receipts. And Nigeria is not going backwards.”

“To every Nigerian worker sweating for this great nation: this country stands on your back. I know it. I see it. I honour it.”

“Keep building. The Nigeria you are working for has a promise waiting for you at the end of it. That promise is law. And from today, it is law that pays.”

“To our young people: start early. The pension you begin in your twenties is the dignity you will own in your seventies. And this government has guaranteed the ground beneath it.”

Tinubu charged the employers of labour to always remit workers’ contributions as appropriate, “To employers, public and private, let there be no ambiguity. Remit your workers’ contributions. Every naira you withhold is stolen from someone’s old age. It is not your money. It never was.”