Pensioners’ Woes: The need for labour movement’s concerted response

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“Since we were retired, no kobo was paid to me. Every time, we would be called to come to Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, to fill one form after another. Sometimes, we sleep at Awolowo Road on the bare floor, for us to be attended to. In spite of that, nothing has come out of it. It was only in 2010 October that I was paid, since then, no payment. My children are  in school, I can’t provide for them. Anytime they come back, we all starve and they will cry all day till they go back. There is nobody to help me except God. My husband died since 2003.”

This was how the Vanguard newspaper of 22 August, 2013 reported Mrs. Thompson Imakop, a retiree from the National Bureau of Statistics, “who,  retired in 2007, was only paid in 2010, lamenting that before and after 2010, she had not received a dime as pension.” (Vanguard, 22/08/2013).

If her story is not pathetic enough, then listen to that of Mr. Muftau Baruwa, Senior foreman in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, “who retired since 11 years and three months ago, said he was just a living dead, saying “I served 35 years and received merit award twice by the Federal Government through two different level 14 officers.

*One of the protester Mr. Felix Adewale Balogun, Chairman Shomolu Local Government Education Authority bin cary out, during  A Protest by Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Lagos state, on non payment of Pensioners arrears and gratuities by Lagos state Government, at Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja. Photo: Bunmi Azeez

I joined the service on 19 May, 1967 and I retired May 25, 2002. As we speak, I have not been paid a kobo, both my gratuity and pension. I have been to the hospital twice since my retirement… I think death is better than this suffering. Most times, I will go into the streets to beg for money to feed. Severally, for two days I will not feed.””

These are just two of several thousands of cases of suffering retired workers from government and private employment across the country. Hundreds have died of curable diseases and poverty among these retired workers, who have been criminally, denied their entitlement after committing their adult lives to the country. If you feel that the inhuman treatment of senior citizens is limited to the federal government, then ask state retirees in Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Abia, Delta or Kano, and you will be proven wrong. Yet, public and political office holders continue to live opulently on the blood of long suffering retirees while Senators want to award themselves live pensions for four-year “service”.

While Mrs. Imakop and Mr. Baruwa are lamenting, just one John Yakubu, allegedly converted N23 billion of police pension fund to his own. While he was only given a slap on the wrist with a fine of N750, 000, another man who was employed to uncover the mismanagement of pension funds, Abdulrahman Maina, was himself “uncovered” by a Senate Committee to have allegedly  mismanaged  billions of Naira from the pension fund.

Mr. Maina is believed to have  jetted out of the country with the support of   the powers that be. These are just two individuals out of several others involved in feeding fat on the misery of poor and hapless pensioners.  Pensioners’ woes are made worse by the virtual collapse of social services, which in effect has turned every household into a mini-government.

Public education  has  been  taken beyond the  the reach of the poor and working people with LASU, UNIOSUN, EKSU demanding an average of N150, 000 as fees from students; while public hospitals are more like death centres for serious ailments. In this kind of milieu, retirement is more like being sentenced to permanent poverty, except for the few big bureaucrats. Even when workers are in service, they can hardly make ends meet with their meager salaries.

As if that’s not enough, the ruling elite, in order to legalize and legitimize the looting of retirees’ pensions   came  up with the  Contributory Pension Scheme, enacted in 2004 under the Pension Reform Act. By these laws, government is shedding off the load of ensuring pension for workers, while handing them over to the private companies  organized under Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and Custodians (PFC). Indeed, these private companies are made  up of  bankers, politicians and big business people. essentially for profit purposes.  Moreover, the new pension has become a basis for politicians to shun investment in social services like education, healthcare, job provision, etc.

According to this Contributory Pension Scheme, workers and employers (both government and private) are to contribute 7.5 percent of each worker’s salary into the pension fund, to be administered by PFAs and PFCs. Aside the fact that the idea of deducting workers’ salaries as pension is exploitative ; workers are being seriously shortchanged with this arrangement.

For instance, what a worker gets as pension after retirement is this savings which is divided into pension and gratuity. This is unlike government guaranteed pension scheme, where a fixed percentage of workers’ salary is given as pension with the possibility of increase. By this policy, what a retiree in the contributory pension scheme will get is just a fraction of what he/she would have collected under government pension scheme.

More is the fact that the future of retirees is bleaker under the contributory pension scheme than under government pension arrangement. For instance, the pension reform act allows pension managers to invest  these pension funds for business.  There are serious doubts about the success of this new scheme.  Indeed, the recent collapse of Nigerian banking sector has already put paid to official statements  that private businesses are more effective and less corrupt.

It took government’s commitment of over N2.5 trillion of public funds that could have been used to fund social services, to revive these banks, albeit temporarily. However, the maddening gambling and crazy quest for quick profits have not stopped either in the banking or any other sector. Effects of the collapse of stock market or banking sector will surely reverberate in the pension administration with lots of defaults in payments of pensioners. Meanwhile by this time, these private profiteers would have gained enough wealth via awarding huge salaries, allowances and bonuses to themselves, as witnessed in the banking crisis.

Already, many contributory pensioners are groaning under unpaid pension arrears by pension fund managers. Furthermore, according to Pencom; the regulatory pension agency, more employers are now defaulting, while others are simply converting workers’ salaries to pension contributions or deducting workers’ salaries by dubious means to pay the employers’ share of contribution. Governments at all levels are also reported to be defaulting in remitting their contributions even when workers’ contributions are being deducted from source.

Meanwhile, the basis  of the introduction of the contributory scheme was to ensure prompt payment of pension . State governments  have intensified compliance with the contributory pension scheme.  In Osun state,  government  reportedly asked  workers to join contributory pension or retire compulsory. Meanwhile, the same government has refused to pay pension of those it forced to retire, while also refusing to remit its share of contributory pension.

Workers and pensioners at all levels must mount serious pressure on trade union leadership to lead the campaign and struggle for adequate, promptly-paid, living pension for all retirees. Consequently, a 48-hour strike backed up with mass actions like protests, rallies, media campaign and lobby must be called by labour leadership as a first step in this struggle.

The Labour movement must reject the contributory pension scheme and demand for a living guaranteed pension scheme for all workers, tied to economic indices (cost of living, inflation, salary increase, etc). Moreover,  the labour movement must demand for a democratic management of pension funds, by elected representatives of workers and pensioners at workplaces, localities and up to the national levels. The representatives will have to give regular reports and updates to workers on the state of their pensions while monitoring and supervising pension payments to retirees at all levels.  Government has a responsibility to  ensure prompt payment of  pension for workers.

The manner, in which the leadership of organised labour cancelled the planned  protest rally in support of pensioners,  with  the excuse that government has promised to look into the issue, is condemnable.

The civil society needs to show more interest in the affairs of pensioners by playing  more active roles to draw the attention of government to the plight of pensioners.

Kola Ibrahim, is of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), Osun State

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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