By Yusuf Olukokun
Atiku Abubakar, 2023 Former PDP Presidential Aspirant, has criticised the move of Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, in trying to open the pension purse in order to open up economic growth after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the villa on Tuesday, May 14 2024.
Atiku said the Minister of Finance wanted to unlock upto 20 trillion naira from the nation’s pension fund, in order to fund infrastructural projects without showing or providing any further details to that effect.
The former presidential candidate stated: “This move must be halted immediately! It is a misguided initiative that could lead to disastrous consequences on the lives of Nigeria’s hardworking men and women who toiled and saved and who now survive on their pensions having retired from service.”
Asserting further, he said using pension fund to cater for infrastructural deficit is a way to perform a sort of Illegality, and the Federal Government should be cautioned to act in accordance with the Pension Reform Act of 2014 (PRA, 2014) .
“In particular, the Federal Government must not act contrary to the provisions of the extant Regulation on investment limits to wit: Pension Funds can invest no more than 5% of total pension funds’ assets in infrastructure investments. I note that as of December 2023, total pension funds assets were approximately N18 Trillion, of which 75% of these are investments in FGN Securities”, he said.
Atiku Abubakar also hammered positively that there are no easy ways for Mr. Wale Edun to address the infrastructural development problems Nigeria has, and he must not in anyway cut corners to tackle the problem by taking out of the pension fund meant for hardworking Nigerians. Instead, he must introduce necessary reforms to boost the confidence of those who are interested in investing in Nigeria by leveraging on private resources, skills and technology.