Bimbola Oyesola

Nigeria’S organised labour has lashed out at the Federal Government for its inability to reconstitute the board of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) almost two years after it sacked the former management headed by  Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu.

Speaking in Lagos through a member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Issa  Aremu, organised labour said the non-constitution of the board of PenCom was completely unacceptable to labour movement.

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While calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately reconstitute the board, he said, “President Buhari has to, as a matter of urgency, give priority to the proper constitution of the board of PenCom. It is completely unacceptable to working people, the contributors to the scheme, that a critical labour market institution is without a board for almost two years. It is unacceptable. The former Director General was whimsically removed. That was bad enough, yet you appointed one that was not confirmed by the Senate for whatever reasons. You leave trillions naira pool of pension fund to be administered without a board. What happened to corporate governance?

“The Acting Director General is doing well to manage the scheme. But what can she do when the board is not in place? If the board had been in place, there would have been more aggressiveness in terms of sensitisation to promote micro-pension scheme. Even to expand the coverage of CPS in the formal sector because the coverage of the formal sector is also low and limited. There are deductions, no remittance and sanctions have not been applied despite the sanction clauses in the Act. It is only an active, well constituted board that can drive that agenda.