Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has criticised President Bola Tinubu over remarks linking Nigeria’s pension challenges to the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, urging the President to stop “ghosting” past governments and focus on addressing current governance challenges.
In a statement issued by his media office, Atiku described Tinubu’s comments as “unnecessary ghosting and futile political shadow chasing,” arguing that governance is a continuous process in which successive administrations inherit both the assets and liabilities of their predecessors. He maintained that the current government should prioritise solving existing problems rather than assigning blame for issues dating back nearly two decades.
Atiku defended the pension reforms introduced during the Obasanjo administration, noting that the Pension Reform Act of 2004 transformed Nigeria’s pension system by replacing the old Defined Benefits Scheme with the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) under the supervision of the National Pension Commission (PenCom). According to him, the reforms addressed widespread challenges such as ghost pensioners, funding deficits and bureaucratic delays while laying the foundation for today’s pension industry.
The former vice president argued that when the Obasanjo administration assumed office in 1999, it inherited an unfunded pension system with liabilities estimated at more than ₦2 trillion. Rather than blaming previous administrations, he said the government enacted structural reforms that stabilised the sector and introduced private Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs) to improve accountability and sustainability.
Atiku urged the Tinubu administration to concentrate on pressing national issues, including insecurity, unemployment, inflation and the rising cost of living, instead of revisiting historical political disputes. His remarks came in response to recent comments by President Tinubu, who had accused the Obasanjo-era government of leaving behind unresolved pension obligations while discussing ongoing efforts to clear pension arrears.
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