Nigerian Pensioners as Endangered Species
Nwobodo Chidiebere
Nigerian pensioners, often forgotten and relegated, have become the embodiment of what is wrong with the Nigerian state. Those who laboured to serve their fatherland in the primes have become objects of mockery and neglect in the same society they slaved for.
Even based on the natural principle of reciprocity, a pathetic situation where the nation’s senior citizens are treated with so much disdain leaves so much to be desired. After serving the nation for thirty-five consecutive years or reaching mandatory sixty years retirement age, a pensioner is no longer strong enough to fend for himself/ herself. So, their pension entitlements are not to be seen as a welfare package or privilege, but a constitutional right.
Sadly, the Federal Government (FG) is indebted to the tune of N174 billions, for those who retired under the Defined Pension Scheme alone and N285 billion to their counterparts under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS)! Some state governments also owe up to five to forty-two months of pension arrears, without losing sleep. These are governors who live in utmost opulence while their fathers and mothers, who “unfortunately” happen to be retirees, are left to languish in abject penury. These governors, also ‘retire’ from office after eight years of milking the State with mindless retirement packages.
For instance, in the midst of the recession, former “comrade” Governor Adams Oshiomole of Edo State, who was leaving behind a state debt profile of USD179.52 million (third highest desbtor among the 36 States as at August 2016), went home with a terminal benefit of a residential building worth N200 million, while his deputy, Dr. Pius Odubu, got one worth N100 million. Oshiomole is equally entitled to pensions equivalent to 100 percent of his last annual salary plus Special Assistants, security aides, etc. Yet, as at the time he signed off, pensioners were owed up to 42-month benefits.
While it must be admitted that the lots of federal pensioners have improved reasonably since the Pension Reform Acts 2004, later amended in 2014, and boosted by a serious-minded regulator in the form of PenCom, I nevertheless wonder why a government that anchors its mandate on anti-corruption war would treat the welfare of pensioners with so much levity. Why would serving government workers not be corrupt, when those that left service with impeccable integrity are starving to death? How can a nation that reduces its pensioners to destitute and rejects of the society command the loyalty of her citizens?
According to psychologists, the number of people that die as a result of hopelessness are more than those killed by various terminal diseases. So, most of the pensioners are departing to the great beyond because Nigerian failed system has taken away hope from them, not because they are too old or sick to live. Imagine the toxicity of the curses these grandfathers and grandmothers would be placing on Nigeria on their sick beds and deathbeds? Imagine the negative orientation the youths have of the Nigerian state, just by seeing those who served the nation with all their lives die gradually, out of negligence and frustration on the part of government?
A recent newspaper editorial showed that in the 2016 Appropriation Act, N50 billion, instead of over N90 billion, was budgeted for paying pensioners under the contributory scheme. But even more worrisome was that out of the inadequate N50 billion, only a paltry N18 billion was released and cash-backed. And it has been the tradition since 2014, thus endangering an otherwise perfect Scheme.
The question is: When did pensions become a capital project that you fund in instalments over the years? Have we forgotten that pension is a right and covered by Section 173 of the 1999 Constitution? What then informs any responsible government to withholding pensions (‘salaries’) of the aged and sick who had worked for it, as if the rest would fall from heaven?
According to the National President of Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Dr Abel Afolayan, the total liabilities of the four Pension Department under the federal government managed Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) are as follows: Civil Service Pensions—N55.3bn; Parastatals Pensions—N110.8bn; Police Pensions— N6.7bn; Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension which stood at N1.5bn. Hence the total accrued arrears amounting to about N174 billion. That of those who retired under the new scheme- CPS- is well over N285 billion.
I am leveraging on this medium, to make a passionate plea to the FG to wake up to its primary responsibilities. I commend President Muhammadu Buhari for releasing the sum of N54 billion to tackle the arrears. It is a show of humaneness. But, he could do more to save his fellow pensioners. The FG must work out modalities to offset backlog of pension arrears as promised by the Ministers of Finance and Budget when they appeared before the House of Representatives in plenary over the matter. I agree with the Speaker of the House of Representatives and also the Senate that if the FG could go as far as bailing out states in the payment of arrears of salaries and pensions, nothing stops it from intervening in special ways to clear its backlog of pension benefits of its own retirees. After all, charity begins at home.
The Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Budget and National Planning, PenCom, PTAD and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should synergize to save Nigerian Pensioners. Even if CBN will create Pension Intervention Fund, they manner it did for Aviation sector—by birthing Aviation Intervention Fund; power sector—through Power Sector Intervention Fund, and so on just to salvage the ugly plights of pensioners.
National Assembly should also ensure that 2017 Appropriation Act takes full care of FG’s pension liabilities. We know that Appropriation Bill submitted by the executive is full of so many inanities. They should be weeded out to mass up funds to tackle the pension backlog, once for all. For instance, we don’t have to be buying kitchen utensils for the Villa every year. We don’t even need to spend so much on inflated capital projects whereas those they being built for are dying off in frustration. No serious nation plays with the wellbeing of its spent workforce, which Nigerian pensioner represents. Government should do the needful, please.