Re: PTAD’s establishment of four state offices

I am compelled to refer to your Public Notice published on p26 of Daily Trust Newspaper of 22nd December, 2015 on the above named caption. For the benefit of those who could not see the publication, I hereby invite you to note the position of PTAD thus:’…Pursuant  to the drive to deliver on its mandate, […]

I am compelled to refer to your Public Notice published on p26 of Daily Trust Newspaper of 22nd December, 2015 on the above named caption.
For the benefit of those who could not see the publication, I hereby invite you to note the position of PTAD thus:’…Pursuant  to the drive to deliver on its mandate, PTAD has opened four state offices in Lagos, Enugu, Benin and     Kaduna.  These offices are the first  in the master plan to have   state offices in most states of the federation’.
In effect and by this singular act, it behoves that  the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has, in addition to its corporate headquarters in Abuja, opened four (4) new offices one (1) each from the South-South, South-East, South-West and one (1) for the entire Northern part of the country located in Kaduna. This implies that all the pensioners spread in the entire nineteen (19) Northern States would have to travel all the way to Kaduna should they need the services of the Directorate.
It may interest Nigerians to note that the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) is an agency of the Federal Government established in August 2013 in compliance with the provisions of Section 30 sub-section (2) (a) of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) of 2004 (amended in 2014) which stipulated the establishment of an independent pension department for the Public Service of the Federation.
Arising from the above, one may conclude that PTAD has violated its core values and mission statement which states inter alia: ‘The purpose of PTAD is to manage pensions under the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) for pensioners not transiting to the Defined Contributory Scheme (DCS) and also to ‘bring services closer to our pensioners, reduce turnaround time of complaint resolution, eliminate the need for pensioners to travel far to lodge complaints, and provide easy access to relevant information….’’
Therefore, with PTAD’s main operational mandates which include pensioners from The Civil Service Pension Department (CSPD), The Police Pension Department (PPD), The Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department (CIPPD), The Treasury Funded Parastatals Pension Department (PPD) and The Pension Support Services Department (PSSD), does it mean that the chunk of pensioners spread in the entire North, for instance, from Yauri to Baga, Kaiama to Kala Balge, Zuru to Maiha, Guzamala to Mangu, Gwoza to Naka, Machina to Anyingba, Gembu to Bichi, Toungo to Borgu, would have to travel down to Kaduna before their pension related complaints are resolved?
Even though a portion of our National Anthem that says ‘The labour of our heroes past Shall never be in vain..’  refers to our nationalists and fallen heroes, I believe that the labour and sacrifice of some of our pensioners could be likened to these nationalists so much that they deserve peace devoid of any tribulation in their retirement life than this avoidable stress being meted by PTAD.
In the interest of fairness, justice and national spread, I am of the view that PTAD should without any further delay open state offices in the two (2) most strategic regions of North-East and North-Central of Nigeria for the benefit of our pensioners who are unarguably higher in number than most of the regions of Nigeria; more so that the first Master Plan has given the directorate the impetus to establish offices in most states of the federation.
I believe what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.
Mohammed Habib, Corporate Affairs Commission, Maitama, Abuja