By VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
IMMEDIATE past Labour representative in the Board of National Pension Commission, PenCom, Barrister Ivor Takor, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to embrace the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, to give it the political will to sustain it, describing the 2004 Pension Reform as a great gift the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo bequeathed to Nigerian workers.

Takor who is a former president of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, and an ex-Treasurer of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, argued that it is the President’s political will that is required to ensure among others, regular monthly payment of federal government’s employers’ contributions are remitted to workers’ Retirement Saving Accounts, RSA.

Speaking on “Implication of the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies on Pension Reform” he said: “The 2004 pension reform is a great gift the administration of former President Obasanjo bequeathed to workers of this country.

However, because gains of reforms are most times not immediately noticeable, workers were and some are still skeptical about the workability of the reform. The current mind blowing fraud uncovered in the administration of the old defined benefits pension scheme where people who lack morals, ethics and fear of God are swimming in “blood” money belonging to senior citizens of this nation, is a pointer to them wisdom of the 2004 pension reform.

Adoke committee

It goes without saying that one of the issues likely to engage the attention of the Adoke committee is what to do with staff of the 38 agencies to be abolished, the 52 to be merged and the 14 to be transferred to their departments.

Going by past experiences, the government is likely to go for the so called easy way out, retiring and retrenching without taking into consideration the social implication of such a decision. The purpose of this article therefore is to draw the attention of the Adoke committee and invariably the federal government to the implication of another mass retirements and retrenchments on the pension reform.

“There is a need for the immediate review of the five per cent of the total monthly wage bill payable to all employees of the Federal Government and the Federal Capital Territory currently being paid into the Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fund Account in the Central Bank as the percentage has proved to be inadequate.

To build and retain confidence of workers in the workability of the pension reform and prove to critics of the reform that the government put the reform in place for the benefit and wellbeing of retirees and not just to diverse itself from pension administration, the government should through actuarial valuation, determine an appropriate percentage that will have to be paid into the redemption account in order to take it to its pre 2007 retrenchment and eight year tenure policies of government. These two policies were responsible for depleting and messing up the redemption fund account.

“The Adoke Committee must realise that throwing all the employees of the affected agencies into the already saturated unemployment market must be a matter of last resort. In that case they must seriously take into consideration and fully address, all labour issues involved in the current policy.

They include but not limited to how the retirement and severance benefits of affected staff are going to be paid without compounding the current problems of lean funds in the Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fund Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria, which is currently not guaranteeing the payment of retirements benefits to retirees as and when due.”

He added that President Jonathan “should buy into the Contributory pension scheme because political will is required to sustain the reform, by ensuring the monthly regular payment of the federal government’s employers’ contributions into the Retirement Savings Accounts of public servants and ensuring that the Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fund Account in the Central Bank is adequately funded to ensure that retirees are paid their retirement benefits as and when due.”