STAKEHOLDERS in the pension industry have taken up arms
against the House of Representatives over ongoing attempts at amending the
Pension Reform Act, PRA, less than three years after it was amended in 2014...
Specifically, they are kicking against the plan to exclude paramilitary
institutions from the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS. In fact, a bill seeking to amend the Pension Reform Act, 2014 to
exclude personnel of the Nigeria Police, the Nigerian Security and Civil
Defence Corps, and Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Security, Civil Defence
Corps, NSCDC, from the Contributory Pension Scheme, had on May 16, passed the
second reading on the floor of the House of Representative was opposed. The
bill, sponsored by Mr. Oluwole Oke, is also seeking to exempt the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, from the scheme. At a public hearing on the
bill in Abuja, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN;
National Pension Commission, PenCom; Nigerian Police Force, NPF; Pension Fund
Operators Association of Nigeria, PenOp; National Insurance Commission, NAICOM
and others, totally rejected the plan, warning that it would among others,
undermine the system. President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, who spoke, noted that the
“bill looks good on the surface, but inwardly it will destroy the future of
workers”, adding that “the position of the congress is that the bill should be
dropped. The bill is not workable and if implemented, it will collapse the
pension system.” He said the federal government could not absorb more financial
burden going by the present low revenue. Financial burden Acting DG, PenCom,
Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, said the issues raised were challenges which were
presently being worked on, adding that the challenges were temporal which would
be resolved very soon. She said “It is wrong to ask one to give what he does
not have. The government has been borrowing to pay salaries and cannot continue
to borrow to pay pension. There is no point legislating what you cannot
enforce. It is too early to amend the law. If we allow this law pass we cannot
recover. We should come together to sustain the gains of the CPS.” Inspector
General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who was represented by Commissioner of
Police, David Bodo, said the NPF Pension Fund Administrator, PFA, had done very
well and that the Police is of the opinion that it would remain with the CPS.
He called on the government to attend to issues already raised by the force
which were being attended to by PenCom, stressing that the welfare of the
Nigerian Police would be well taken care of under the CPS. Former Director
General of PenCom, Mohammed Ahmad, warned against the planned exclusion, noting
that the number of people seeking exemption might be up 50 per cent of
government workers, which government could not cater for. He contended that the
budget could not sustain the exemption, insisting that “CPS remains a safe
vehicle for creating national saving.” President, PenOp, Longe Eguarekhide,
said the critical thing with the CPS was funding, stressing that policy maker
should always think of ways to improve lives instead of creating more burden
for the government. General Secretary of National Union of Textile, Garment and
Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, Mr. Issa Aremu, in a statement argued
that any private member’s bill which seeks to erode the gains of the 13 year
old N7 trillion CPS in terms of coverage and resource pools is
counterproductive and should not be encouraged. Aremu who is also the Vice
President of Industrial Global Union, African Region, said Pension Reform Acts
of 2004 and 2014, were outcomes of executive bills which addressed the delicate
interests of pensioners, government and the economy, noting that “in principle
a private member’s bill informed by narrow and vested interest considerations
cannot do justice to all. The pensions of the nation’s working men and women in
security services are better secured in a national contributory scheme than the
old unfunded and unsustainable discredited Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS). Until
the recent pension reform, all stakeholders bore witness to ugly features of
corruption, inefficiency and share looting which characterized DBS. To return
to the old era means bringing back corruption to pension administration through
the National Assembly. “The Pension Act had just been amended through
executive/all inclusive review two years ago. With all its globally
acknowledged successes the contributory pension covers only seven million
workers, to further ask for exclusion of the security agencies only undermines
the scheme with all the attendant negative implications for Nigerian economy
just coming out of recession. We call all members of the Assembly to reject the
private bill which will return pensioners to the bad old days of non-payment of
pensions.”
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