By Victor AhiumaYoung

Leaders of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, have disclosed plans to storm the National Assembly, NASS, to seek amendment of some provisions of the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, to address some of the issues forcing civil servants and other contributors to have a second thought about the scheme.

Top among the issues is non-remittance of deducted funds by government and other employers.

President of ASCSN, Shehu Muhammed who made this known in Lagos, lamented most of these issues had been lingering for years and attempts to tackle them had been unsuccessful.

According to him, some employers had continuously failed to remit their own contributions to the  Pension Fund Administrators, PFA. 

He said the implication was an affected employee would not have access to his or her terminal benefit until when the employer would pay up.

According to him, “From this, you can see that there is no difference from the old system and the new system. It is like we are all going back to square one, where you spend years without having access to your terminal benefits.

“Some retirees have  died without having access to their retirement benefits. However, we still have a window. That is, those who formulated the law, the National Assembly, we are planning to go there to protest. That is our next bus stop because the complaint we are receiving across the country by our members is that the contributory pension scheme is not meeting our expectations and should be scrapped.

“It is no more beneficial to the workers of Nigeria. We are still going back to the National Assembly with suggestions as regards amendment of the law to pave way for us to have access to our money immediately after exiting the service.”

He also spoke on the issue of gratuity, insisting that no portion of the Pension Act abolishes payment of gratuity. 

Mohammed noted the Association would continue to battle for the payment of gratuity until it is restored as articulated at the 5th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference, NDC, in Lagos, where members implored the Government to restore payment of gratuity to public service employees that had been denied the benefits in the interest of justice, equity and fairness.

During NDC members of ASCSN from the various organs of the Association such as the Units, Branches and Chapters in the 36 states of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, among others said “The Conference-In-Session noted that since the 2004 Pension Reform Act was enacted, public service employees in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, at the Federal level were denied gratuity while their counterparts in other Government Agencies such as Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited NNPCL , Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, Nigeria Maritime Administration nd Safety Agency, NIMASA, Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, etc, as well as those in some state governments and private sector of the economy have continued to receive gratuity in appreciation for services rendered to their organizations. 

“It therefore, implored the Government to restore payment of gratuity to public service employees that had been denied the benefits in the interest of justice, equity and fairness.

“The Conference-In-Session equally stressed the need to include pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, in the review of pension increases so that they could benefit from such periodic upward review of pension rates like their colleagues who retired under the Defined Benefit Scheme, DBS, in line with the provisions of Section 173 (3) of the 1999 Constitution which stipulates that “pension shall be reviewed every five years or together with any Federal Civil Salary reviews, whichever is earlier.”