PENCOM and uncertain future of the Nigerian worker

As Nigerian workers joined the rest of the world in commemorating Workers’ Day on May 1, their present condition is made unstable by inadequacy of the national minimum wage, while their future in retirement is threatened by uncertainty arising from what appears to be a big heist at the National Pension Commission (PenCom). Confronted with the monstrosity of corruption in the old pension fund management, the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS), the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration carried out a fundamental overhaul of the system to meet up with its core responsibilities to Nigeria’s retirees. The effort would become institutionalized in the form of the Pension Reform Act of 2004, which introduced the innovation of Contributory Pension Scheme, (CPS), and the establishment of PenCom as pension fund manager through Pension Funds Custodians (PFCs) and Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).
To consolidate on the successes of the reforms in pension fund management, the President Goodluck Jonathan administration deepened reforms in the sector, culminating in the 2014 Pension Reform (Amendment) Act, 2014, which created the Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to address pension issues relating to retirees under the old scheme and properly define the tenure of management as well as board of PenCom.
Between 2004 and 2014, pension reform had become relatively successful with accrued funds in excess of $27 billion and without any reported case of fraudulent mismanagement. However, this may no longer be the case as the entrenched corruption with deepen roots now pervading the entire system may have its branches spreading wide into the affairs of pension fund management at PenCom.
In what has become a subject of National Assembly inquest, PenCom appears to be oozing a corruption stench, if allegations of impunity, mismanagement, graft, misappropriation and outright pilfering of pension funds, currently being investigated by a House of Representative ad hoc committee become proven. From allegations of award of fraudulent contracts to the illegalities of unilateral increase of terminal benefits of its top management staff by 300 per cent with an expansion in the number of general managers from 10 to 17 and the issue of a missing N33 billion, there are clear indications of a reversal of gains in pension fund management to the pre-2004 era.
In addition to impunity and disregard for the due process and rule of law in the conduct of government business, a selective war on corruption, which appears to protect friends but persecutes perceived enemies has only succeeded in perpetuating the vicious cycle of endemic corruption in Nigeria, leading to the great heist at PenCom. In providing a proper setting for the current orgy of corruption in PenCom was for the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in its now well-known method of almost always undermining the of rule of law, was the sack of then DG of PenCom, Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, along with the entire management and board in a manner that contravened the PRA (Amended) 2014, as their tenure in office had not expired as at April 2017. Whereas, section 21[1][a]-[g] clearly spells out how an erring member of the executive management committee of PenCom could be removed from office, the sack of the Anohu-Amazu management didn’t follow the laid down procedure. Apart from the flagrant disregard of the rule of law in this instance, a grave injustice was also done the South East geo-political zone, where Anozu-Amazu hails from, when the President appointed Aisha Dahir-Umar from the North East as acting DG, in direct contravention of section 21[2] of the PRA 2014, which states that “In the event of a vacancy, the President shall appoint a replacement from the geo-political zone of the immediate past member to complete the remaining tenure.”
As a product of illegality, the current executive management team of PenCom, with Dahir-Umar as acting DG, is simply re-enacting the impunity and disregard for the rule of law that birthed it in the first instance. The free for all reign of corruption and maladministration now plaguing PenCom is further enabled by the failure of the Buhari administration to appoint suitable persons into the four vacant positions of commissioners in charge of administration, technical, inspectorate as well as finance and investment in line with section 31 of PRA 2014. Similarly, the governing board of PenCom remains empty as the President has failed to appoint suitable persons representing relevant stakeholders, in line with section 31[2] of the PRA 2014.
It has been a hide-and-seek game between the House ad hoc committee and the management of PenCom over investigation of alleged of corrupt practices, including the issue of the missing N33 billion from the coffers of PenCom. In response to a series of communication between the House of Representatives ad hoc committee and the Dahir-Umar-led PenCom seeking relevant answers to its enquiry on the many allegations of maladministration, the nation’s apex pension fund manager has deployed cover-ups, clever lies and half-truths to deflect from the substance of the matter under probe. When it’s not feigning ignorance of the content the communication of enquiry, PenCom claims its personnel with the relevant information are all on leave. And when the acting DG of PenCom, Dahir-Umar, appeared before the committee, she stated under oath that her organisation maintains only one account with the CBN, a claim that was contradicted vide a communication [marked BKS/CSO/GEN/NASS/02/094] from the CBN to the committee indicating PenCom maintains eight accounts with it.
Several months into the parliamentary inquest into its activities, PenCom has not been able to provide satisfactory answers to the enquiry about the missing N33 billion pension fund. So far, PenCom has failed to provide documentary evidence about the purpose of the withdrawal of this humongous amount of pensioners’ money and the beneficiaries. Curiously, CBN has also withheld the operational number of the account from which the controversial N33 billion was withdrawn, which indicates complicity in high places.
The larger implication of the current financial haemorrhage at PenCom is not only a reversal of the modest gains in the period after pension reforms of 2004, but may relapse the plight of pensioners to their impoverished conditions before the reforms. While the Buhari administration prides itself on making gains in the war on corruption on the simplistic basis of the number of arrests and prosecution of members of previous administrations, a reality check reveals the current occupiers of public offices are similarly helping themselves to public funds, thereby perpetuating the monstrous cycle of graft, leaving Nigerians as the ultimate losers at all times.
The failure of Buhari’s administration to act with the required swiftness when allegations of corrupt practices leading to economic and financial crimes against agents of his government has helped to embolden them in their bad behaviour.
The most sustainable antidote to corruption is the total compliance of the business of government to the dictates of the morality [spirit] of due process [letters] of rule of law.