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Stories by Bimbola Oyesola, 08033246177
The inability of the Federal Government to remit N183 billion accrued pension fund of its retirees is presently threatening the sustainability of the new Contributory Pension scheme, which came into force in 2004.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned that the future of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) is under threat, due to the federal government’s liability.
This is just as retirees on the scheme, under the umbrella of the Association of Contributory Pension Retirees, lamented some of the challenges associated with the scheme.
Speaking at the congress of the association recently, NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, said the CPS was threatened by non-compliance by major stakeholders, especially employers.
He decried the prevailing situation whereby retirees under the scheme go through a lot of hardship to access their funds. According to him, if the issues and challenges inherit in the scheme are not addressed, the scheme would soon hit the rocks.
He said, “Issues of payment of benefit in Nigeria have become a nightmare. This needs to be addressed.”
Also speaking, president of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Dr. Abel Afolayan, highlighted some of the challenges confronting the scheme.
He said the inability of the federal government to release funds has caused pensioners to suffer deprivation as no retiree has been paid since October 2015.
According to him, large numbers of next of kin of deceased pensioners have not been able to access the entitlements of their relations, which has made life unbearable for the beneficiaries.
He said, “Many organisations of government and other employers of labour have been defaulting on the regular remittances of contributions of workers to their pension fund administrators, which is affecting the philosophy of the scheme.
“Non-compliance with section 173 (3) and section 210 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and section 15 of the 2014 Pension Reform Act (as amended), which stipulates that pension shall be reviewed after every five years or whenever workers salaries are reviewed, whichever one that is earlier. Non-compliance with the provisions of this law by government has made the contributory pensioners lose 15 per cent pension increase of 2007 and 33 per cent increase in 2010 respectively.”
He said the 2004 Pension Act has abolished the right of the pensioners under this scheme to earn gratuity thus denying the employees the chance of getting the usual lump gratuity by the employer to his employee at the time of retirement.
Afolayan lamented that the PFAs and the National Pension Commission did not specify how pensioners can benefit from returns on the investment accrued from their contributions, which has left the pensioners who are the legitimate owners of the funds in hardship.
In his words, the union has been making efforts to ensure that contributory pensioners’ entitlements are not withheld.
He said, “The union has presented to government the demands of contributory pensioners, especially the payment of accrued right.
“Also, the union has appeared before the Joint Committee on Budget Appropriation at the National Assembly and submitted a memorandum requesting payment of over N183 billion accrued right of retirees from 2015 to date.”
Explaining the reasons for the CPS in the first place, Afolayan said the 2004 pension reform act was aimed at ameliorating the sufferings of Nigerian pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme that relied on funding from statutory budgetary provision from various tiers of government. The inability of government to sustain the scheme gave birth to the new pension reform act in 2004.
NUPENG backs local govt autonomy
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) 
has tasked the Federal Government to give autonomy to the 774 local governments in the country so that they can operate fully without any hindrance.
The National President of the union, Igwe Achese said granting local governments’ autonomy will go a long way to ensure proper accountability and promote rapid infrastructural development.
He noted that the autonomy will make the local government Chairmen and Councillors more responsive and acceptable to the people at the grass-roots level.
“Our union condemns in its entirety the action of Governors who remove duly elected local government chairmen and councillors at will and we believe that granting them autonomy will put a stop to it”, he said.
The labour leader added that the autonomy will make sure that direct allocation from the Federation Account are paid directly to them thereby putting a stoppage to the hijack by Governors.
According to Achese, such direct allocations to the local government chairmen and councillors will ensure prompt payment of salaries and allowances to workers as at when due.
“We want to appeal to the federal government to urgently revisit the issue and grant local government full autonomy so that grass-root development will be guaranteed”, he stressed
