The President of the Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC) Mr Ayuba Wabba, says the new contributory pension scheme is under severe threat, following the failure of the Federal Government to remit over N84billion to the National Pension Commission.
Wabba stated this in his address at the maiden meeting of the Federal Public Service and Private Sector Contributory Pensioners in Abuja on Monday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that that the pensioners met to demand for quick payment and justice in the administration of pension in the country.
Wabba commended the pensioners for joining forces fight a common goal, adding that operating under division to make their request could be detrimental to their struggle.
Wabba, therefore, urged the pensioners to collaborate and work with workers’ union to achieve their demand and salvage the poor plight of pensioners in the country.
He decried a situation whereby state governors would allocate million of naira to themselves as pension, while leaving office but abandon the workforce without any workable pension scheme.
In his address, Mr Abel Afolayan, the President, Nigerian Union of Pensioners, said that the unity became necessary in the face of unmitigated fraud in the scheme
He said a situation where pension management made profits from their pension having invested them without sharing the profit with the owners of the money was wicked and represented a betrayal of trust.
Afolayan said that the union, in its efforts to comply with the resolutions of the conference, decided to marshal out plans on how to organise pensioners under one body to speak with one voice.
He said that the 2004 Pension Reform Act was an act of the parliament of the Federal Republic of Nigeria aimed at ameliorating the suffering of Nigerian pensioners.
Afolayan added that Nigeria could not sustain the scheme due to the inability of various organs of government to pay pension entitlement as and when due.
According to him, this neglect had brought untold hardships on the pensioners, hence the Federal Government decided to introduce the 2004 New Pension Reform Act.
Afolayan said that the Federal Government, in its efforts to correct anomalies in pension fund, also established the Pension Commission to supervise and administer the scheme to ensure that every pensioner receives retirement benefits
According to him, since the inception of the scheme there was no single fraud in the last 10 years of its existence, and many pensioners have been able to access their retirement benefits as and when due.
He, however, listed the challenges of the contributory pension scheme to include non-release of remittance by the Federal Government to the National Pension Commission to pay the retirees who retired from October 25, 2015 till date.
He also said that many agencies of government and other employers of labour have been defaulting in the regular remittance of contributions of workers’ to their pension fund administrators which is affecting the philosophy of the scheme.
“The inability of the Federal Government in releasing this fund has caused pensioners under the scheme to suffer severe hardships,” he said. (NAN)
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