Expectations from new contributory pension scheme
Ayeleso Oladele, Lagos
Ahmed Kabir, DG, PencomAyeleso Oladele reviews the failure of the past contributory pension scheme in the country and charges new operators to live up to expectations.
When the Federal Government, during the regime of the immediate past president, Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo, came up with the idea of contributory pension scheme, fully funded and privately third party custody of funds and assets to replace the old defined pension scheme, it was obvious that the idea was borne out of passion for the aged citizens of the country.
Ever before now, the retired workers, most especially in government parastatals had suffered a lot when it comes to the payment of their pension allowance. It has always been tug of war for the government to release the meagre due them in due time thereby subjecting them to agony.
In fact, during the regime of President Obasanjo, the federal government admitted that it owed the pensioners as much as N3 trillion, which up till the moment, it is not yet clear if the federal government will pay off what its owing the pensioners.
Rest, it is said, is sweet after work. It seems as if this is not applicable to the Nigerian pensioners as their struggles continue after serving their fatherland meritoriously. After they have spent the better part of their life to serve the nation, they are still subjected to carrying of placard in demonstration to show their grievances against the non payment of what the government owed them.
Unfortunately, investigation by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that most of these pensioners are not subjected to this woe directly by the government, but some government agencies, individuals in government circle who have seen the avenue as a means to enrich their pocket on the bases of flimsy excuses.
During the Obasanjo regime, it came to a level that the Federal Government would inform the general public that it had released the pension allowance to the State government for it to disburse, while the state government would, in turn, decline it, further compounding the problems of these aged men and women. Investigation revealed that the pensioners in a particular state in the south west visited the parents of the state governor several times to plead with them to appeal to their son to pay them what belong to them.
In Ekiti State recently, one of the pensioners (name withheld) who lost her husband early this year had her allowance seized for no reason. She told the Nigerian Tribune that when she got to where she suppose to submit her clearance form usually preceding the payment, she was told that her name was omitted out rightly and that she would need to see them at the helms of affairs before she could know the source of the problem.
“When I got to their office in Ado (the State capital), I was told that they had the information that I have died, so they had to remove my name immediately. But a source from that office informed me that my name was internally. I met with the person directly incharge, he apologised and promised that it would be rectified before the second month, but up till now, I have not received my pension allowance” she narrated.
The last major verification exercise during the regime of President Obasanjo was an eye-opener to the agony of the Nigerian pensioners. Some of the aged pensioners that were interviewed at the site of the exercise could not hold back the tears as they pleaded with the government to just try and pay them part of the money so they can at least enjoy what they laboured for in their life time. It was also gathered that a good number of them had died without been paid their package.
These and other issues related to the unending agony of these pensioners could have been the rationale behind the call of the Campaign for Democratic and Workers Rights (CDWR), a non-governmental organisation, who had saddled itself with the responsibility to fight the cause of the pensioners in Nigeria, calling for immediate cancellation of the new pension scheme asking the government to allow trade union take over.
In his argument, during one of their lectures in Lagos, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, Executive Director, Kolagbodi Memorial Foundation (KMF) in his own submission said that living pension that is accrued to pensioners can only come from a living wage.
Giving past experiences, he argued that pension matter in Nigeria has gone beyond the question of just setting up an Act, rather he said it should be a challenge to all Nigerians, including the government, on how to take care of the aged. “I align myself with the provision of the constitution particularly the one that relates to the economy objective of government that government shall be responsible in terms of old age care and pension.
“What that means is that beyond the right of everybody who has made economic contribution in one work force or the other are being paid their entitlement as at when due.
“There is a need for us to institute a social security system that can take care of not only the aged but also the disable in the society in terms of their access to health care, and some other basic needs that are required at old age”.
However, Comrade Aremu said that the government should earmark 10 per cent of the national and the state budget which should be dedicated to resolving some of the problems accrued to old aged people, particularly, he said, when the government had admitted of owing arrears of pension of over N3 trillion.
This group also believed that those companies that have registered as Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) and Pension Fund Custodian (PFC) anchoring the scheme are rather owned by the politicians in the nation who are only out to make money at the expense of anything. They also claimed that they could fold up at any time and if such happen, what would the contributors do?
Nevertheless, in the midst of several criticisms, the National Pension Commission has continued to discharge its responsibility. Recently, the commission commenced the payment of pension allowance to its first beneficiaries.
In his own argument, the representative of Penman Pension in the public lecture encouraged Nigerians to give the new pension scheme a trial, earlier on, it had observed that Pencom, the PFA and the PFC need to embark on massive means of creating awareness.
Meanwhile, the Director General, Pencom, Mr. Mallam Kabir Ahmed in an interview said that the commission has plans to embark on awareness campaign for Nigerians to know what the commission is doing and the benefit of the scheme to individuals.
According to him, the commission would embark on a number of media strategies, inform of documentary which he said would run through electronics media forces similar to what other institutions are doing, just to educate people. “In newspaper, we going to explain to Nigeria what this scheme is all about properly. Nigerians will be better educated. This is the second seminar we are holding for pension desk officers in the public sector, trying to introduce them to the exit guideline, for your information, since July 2007 those that retired under the new scheme are now collecting their retirement benefits as at when due” he explained.
In section 2 of the pension reform Act 2004, it stipulates that the scheme is to ensure that every person who worked in either public service of the federation, federal capital territory or private sector receives his retirement benefits as and when due, and to assist improvident individuals by ensuring that the save in order to cater for their livelihood during old age.
