By Ivor Takor

FOLLOWING the last senate passage of Police Pension Bill seeking to exempt the police from Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, at the twilight of its life, on Monday June 26, the second part of an ex-ray of the implications titled “Senate Passing of Police Bill, is a Lurch backward for Nigeria”, was published by Pension & You.

The article ends in today’s edition.  

In 2017, another Private Member’s Bill was presented to the 8th  National Assembly seeking to exempt the Nigeria Police and other Paramilitary Agencies from the CPS. During the Public Hearing on the Bill held on 28 September 2017, the Nigeria Police High Command, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), PenCom, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) and other stakeholders in the pension industry overwhelmingly rejected the proposal because of the preponderance of its disadvantages.  

The 8th  National Assembly, therefore, declined the proposal for exemption and resolved that the welfare of the Nigeria Police personnel should be enhanced within the framework of the CPS.

The 9th Senate passed the current Bill despite opposition to the Bill by critical stakeholders including the Federal Government, the National Pension Commission, the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, the Nigeria Labour Congress as well as some Civil Societies and Pension Advocacy Organisations, during the public Hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Police Affairs on 20th  January 2023.

The immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, had written to the Inspector General of Police in January 2022 to draw his attention to his Office circular, Ref: 59149/S.1/C.1/11/266 dated July 20, 2021, which had said police must be under the CPS, reminding him that the circular is still in force. The former SGF also referred the Police High Command to the White Paper on the Report of the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions, and Agencies, which expressly forbids any government body, apart from the military and the intelligence services from exiting the Contributory Pension Scheme. This was brought to the attention of the Senate Committee on Police Affairs during the 20th  January 2023 Public Hearing of the passed Bill.

No excuse for passage

It is still baffling that despite the above, the Senate still went ahead to pass the Bill, a few days before the end of its tenure. I am not in agreement with those who are insinuating that previous attempts and the current passing of the Bill are motivated by pecuniary interest. I see the passing of the Bill as a moderate face to reactionary politics. In essence, this amounts to a defense of the status quo, the existing state of affairs. For some, this desire to resist or avoid change is deeply rooted in human psychology.

In his essay ‘Rationalism in Politics’ (1962), for example, Micheal Oakeshott argued that to be a conservative is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbound, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss’.  

By this, Oakeshott did not suggest that the present is in any way perfect or even that it is valued on account of its familiarity, a familiarity that engenders a sense of reassurance, stability, and security.

 Indefensibility of bill

Both the DBS and the CPS, have been tried and the results are in the public domain. Therefore, moving the police from the CPS back to DBS is irrational; lacking usual or normal mental clarity. It is a decision that is not endowed with reason or understanding.

The rationales for the reforms were that the DBS in the public service was unfunded; unsustainable as it had outstanding pension liabilities in the public service as of 2004 was N2.4 trillion; its administration was weak, inefficient, and lacked regulatory control, which gave room for corruption;  demographic shifts and aging made the CPS in the public service unsustainable.  

In the private sector, most workers were not covered by any form of retirement benefits scheme; the funds of the few private sector pension schemes that were in existence were not segregated from the funds of the companies. Consequently, in any company that went under, the workers were left without pension.

The current situation is that from a situation of hopelessness, with an Federal public service pension liability of N2.4 trillion as of 2004, which was one of the reasons for the 2004 reform, the pension industry, which was non-existent in 2004 has accumulated pension assets of N1.5.45 trillion as at March 2023. There is now a ready pool of funds for the payment of retirement benefits to members of the scheme.

The Bill is indefensible because during the Public hearing, the promoters of the Bill, failed to present any new superior grounds that would necessitate a review of the previous parliamentary and executive decisions on the matter. On the contrary, the arguments against the exemption of the Police are more compelling today and reinforced by economic, fiscal, social, and public policy reasons. President Tinubu should therefore consign the Bill to the dustbin where it belongs.

Ivor Takor is Director, Centre for Pension Rights Advocacy, CPRA.