Our Correspondents
They are senior citizens that served their country with zeal at a time they bubbled with life and energy. But today, pensioners in Nigeria, at federal and state levels, are not happy. Their sadness springs from their being treated like orphans by successive administrations that have paid little attention to their plight.
From non-payment of accumulated pension arrears, to non-payment of minimum wage, the retirees insist their horror is undeserved and unwarranted. Many of them, especially those who retired from the states, are battling to receive their emoluments that have accumulated for years. While many have died waiting for their entitlements, those alive have been subjected to the worst level of hardship.
Thus, they have asked government to capture them in various health insurance schemes to ensure they live a better and longer life as retirees.
Over the years, the horrible plight of these senior citizens has deepened systemic corruption in Nigeria. Workers, while in service, devise dubious means to enrich themselves to guarantee a blissful post-retirement life.
Currently, federal pensioners in Nigeria are captured under two different schemes and are handled by two distinct agencies; the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) and the National Pensions Commission (PenCom), while at the state level, pension boards have been created to sort out pension matters.
Operationally, anyone who retired on or before June 30, 2007, belongs to the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) handled by PTAD, while anyone who retired from July 1, 2007, till date, belongs to PenCom, under the Contributory Pensions Scheme (CPS) run by pension fund administrators (PFAs).
The DBS, as the name implies, provides a specified payment in retirement determined by the pensioner’s rank at the time of retirement, while the CPS allows employees and employers to contribute and invest funds over time to save for retirement. Pensioners under these two schemes have different challenges; the structures and laws setting them up are different.
Mr. Uzomah Ignatius, who retired from the Federal Office of Statistics in 2005, said they are treated shabbily.
“I am a pensioner under PTAD’s DBS. I want to say that pensioners in Nigeria are always used as scapegoats. When they manage to give us something, we take it like orphans. They often treat us as if we don’t matter. Although PTAD ensures we are paid as and when due, there are outstanding arrears.”
Ignatius, however, thanked President Muhammad Buhari for offsetting the more than 42-month pension arrears left by previous governments.
“President Buhari tried by clearing the backlog even though pensioners felt shortchanged as workers got 67 per cent increase while 33 per cent was paid to pensioners. They said we are not entitled to housing, transportation and health allowances but we go to the same market with workers. We use the same transport system and go to the same hospital. Yet, no provision was made to cushion these effects despite our frailty. Even at that, some of us have not received the arrears.
“We are clamouring to ensure pensioners are paid the same time as workers and this includes arrears. This must be cleared before December 31, 2019. That is government’s directive. Government does not want to carry this issue over till next year. The circular directing that workers’ emoluments be cleared before the end of the year is out but that of pensioners is not. We are saying that there should be no carry over of our payments to next year. We also want to enjoy the minimum wage,” he declared.
Also speaking, Barcram Azuwike, a 2016 retiree from the National Bureau of Statistics and who is enrolled under the CPS supervised by PenCom, said it took over one year before he got his entitlement
His words: “I was paid in November 2017. The money we contributed was not much because pension was small. I was paid one quarter of my annual income. I worked for 34 years and three months. The amount PenCom deducts and remits to IBTC is 7.5 per cent of your monthly earnings. The fund is very small. One should receive at least half of his gross income. They pay us regularly but the income is fixed and so it depreciates in value over time. PenCom is working within the ambit of the law.”
Mrs. Ogungbo Celiat Adejumoke retired on March 1, 2017, from the state hospital Ota, Ogun State. Unlike some of her colleagues lamenting about their withheld emoluments, Adejumoke said hers has been regular but that she was yet to get her gratuity. To support her monthly income, she does petty trading.
She said, “I am not experiencing any difficulty in getting my monthly dues. But the problem is that, since March 2017, I have not been paid my gratuity. I am still coping from the little I make from my petty trading. I am really contented and not facing any difficulty. I thank God that I am enjoying my retirement.”
Olawale Samuel Abiola, who retired as a chief clerk from the General Hospital, Ota, Ogun State, in May 2010, has been lucky as payment of his pension and gratuity took effect immediately.
He said government started his pension from November of the same year.
“I was paid arrears of six months in full and it has not failed till date. My gratuity was also paid in full in November of 2013. I’m enjoying my life,” he said.
We work like lions but die penniless
– Nasarawa pensioners
The motto of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) says, “Rest is sweet after labour,” but that aphorism does not capture the reality when it comes to most pensioners in Nasarawa State.
However, for some of them, the situation is better, as the state government has made efforts to sustain regular payment to pensioners of the state civil service.
A retired local government staff, Abdullahi Mohammmed, said the last four years have been hellish for pensioners in the local government but the timely intervention of the governor has helped a great deal.
Director-general, Nasarawa State Pension Board, Abdullahi Oseze, explained that the state has worked hard to ensure uninterrupted payment to pensioners. He said the local government pensioners would soon smile as the board was doing everything to clear their arrears.
In Jalingo, Taraba State, the secretary of the state chapter of the NUP, Mr. Paul Tyav, lamented the inability of the state government to key into the new pension reforms in the country. He stressed that the development has subjected pensioners to hardship. Tyav insisted there was need for the state government to key into the new pension reforms, where pension administrators invest monthly contributions of workers and government’s percentage so that they, the workers, can access their pension and other benefits on retirement.
Tyav said the absence of this had led to several challenges, including retirees having to stand on the queue for long hours to get captured before collecting their pensions. He lamented that this system takes quite a long time, unlike the new system where retirees are enlisted and begin to enjoy their retirement benefits immediately.
Unlike in Nasarawa, pensioners in Niger State are celebrating the reversal of the Contributory Pension Scheme, especially as the state government has maintained its regular payment of pensions and gratuity.
Mohammed Ndagi, a retired civil servant from the Niger State Ministry of Information and Culture, said the state government has ensured they don’t suffer the fate of several pensioners across the country.
“I can honestly confirm to you that our pension payment has been regular since this administration came on board. We are paid immediately after civil servants receive their salary. This is a deviation from the past when we did not know our fate at the end of every month,” he said.
Despite the many accolades and success stories of consistency in payment of pension entitlement in some states, it seems to be trailed by some challenges, as new retirees claim to face the issue of documentation, which often delays their payment.
Chairman of the Adamawa State Pensioners Association, Samson Almuru, said the state government has not keyed into the CPS: “We have not been enrolled with any pension administrator yet, but this administration is already working towards addressing the problems, including pension administration services. In past administrations, pensioners were neglected, but now we are paid on a regular basis. Those that have not been captured for payment have been captured, and about 2,000 pensioners have already been captured for pension payment and the exercise is on-going.
“I would like to call on PenCom to take advantage of the favourable disposition of this government and help Adamawa State workers to be enrolled into the contributory pension scheme. This will help to avert the pains of the past.”
For Mrs. Rhoda Osuafor, a retired school principal, it has been a stress-free experience each time she wants to collect her pension. She explained it was initially difficult after she retired in 2011, adding that it took over a year to access her pension because she refused to give bribe to fast-tract the processing of her documents.
Osuafor, who just turned 70 and lives in Abuja, commended the current governor of Anambra State for handling pensioners’ matters as top priority.
As it is obtainable in some states, the Kwara State government has not enrolled its civil servants under the CPS. The state still operates the DBS, with its many disadvantages that include a huge debt profile. This has so far worsened the living condition of pensioners in the state. Those who retired from 2015 till date are yet to get their gratuity. Those in the local government councils were last paid in 2009.
Many of the retirees have died while waiting for their gratuity. Even their monthly pensions were in arrears until the current administration came on board in May 2019.
A federal pensioner under the CPS, Mrs. Sefinat Aliyu, expressed worry that, since she retired a year ago, her family has been suffering as a result of non-payment of her pension.
She said, “How can President Buhari abandon us and be planning to pay us over a period of three years? It is the same President that said we should shun corruption in public service that has left us on the streets to go hungry.”
Also lamenting, another retiree, James Ajiboye, said the action of the President was against the objective of the PRA 2014: “The President is violating the law. The objective of the PRA 2014 is for a retiree to be paid immediately after he or she retires and stops receiving salary. President Buhari has shown that he is insensitive to our plight and this is very awful. My pension should be paid to me immediately, considering the fact that I no longer receive salary.”
In Kaduna, pensioners of New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN) have been battling to have their N3 billion pension arrears paid. But when the Buhari administration came on board, their monthly pension payment from 2017 till date became regular.
However, the pensioners’ dilemma still remains the need to have the arrears of N3 billion sorted out, which was what prompted them to drag the 19 northern governors to court, having taken over the ownership of the newspaper from the Federal Government.
Explaining their agitation, one of the NNN pensioners, Alhaji Tajudeen Ajibade Tijjani, said payment of pensions had become more regular since 2017.
“Our payment is easy because we are under the Federal Government Pension Scheme, which is not like PenCom that keeps pensioners waiting. We are paid by PTAD. So, we don’t have problem assessing the monthly payment. But the arrears are the problem. We don’t know who is sitting on our arrears, after the President ordered that all arrears be paid to pensioners,” he said.
In Benue State, pensioners are owed between 19 and 25 months at the state and local government levels, respectively.
The chairman of the Concerned Pensioners group, Peter Kyado, said pensioners had to sleep at Government House, Makurdi, in August for several days to press home their demand for the payment of their pensions. He explained that, since then, pensioners have been able to get only one month’s pension, adding that the promise by the governor to ensure prompt payment of pensions every month has not materialised.
However, Governor Samuel Ortom said that the PenCom law would help address the accumulation of pension arrears and boost the morale of those still in service.
In Kogi State, there are different categories of pensioners. There are those who retired from the Federal Civil Service and are grouped under the DBS, and there are those of the PTAD.
An angry police retiree, who identified himself as Sergeant Adekunle, described the PenCom scheme as fraudulent.
“My greatest regret is that I could not build a house while in service. My initial thought was that, when the 60 per cent of the total contribution is paid, I will be able to put up at least a two-room bungalow for my family, but, sadly, it was not so,” he lamented.
Also speaking to our correspondent, a male retiree from the Federal Ministry of Information, Lokoja, who pleaded anonymity regretted that his family has been passing through hell since he retired in July 2018. He has not been captured in the monthly pension.
To him, PenCom should be abolished and the Federal Government should revert to the old system. He, however, called for punitive measures to against those who divert pension funds.
In Abuja, Mr . Louis Ozuzu, who retired as an Assistant Director from Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), is planning to sue his pension managers for not paying him as and when due.
He said, “Pension managers manipulate your money and pay you peanuts. This is the basic problem that retirees are facing, apart from the ones done by the state governments, who deduct your money without remitting it to the PFAs. They are leaving retirees to suffer and die untimely.
“In many states now, there is nothing like gratuity. In states where they have not embraced contributory pension, the retirees suffer because they are tied to the apron strings of the government. They can choose to pay them or not.”
For Mr. Peter Akpan, who retired from the Nigerian Customs Service in 2015, his monthly pension has been regular and is usually paid to his bank monthly. He said, aside from the yearly mandatory verification exercise usually carried out by his former employer, he has not experienced any hitch in the process of collecting his entitlement.
The Federal Government reacts
On what the Federal Government is doing to boost the welfare of pensioners in Nigeria, the executive secretary of the PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, said the agency has since secured government’s approval to pay the 33 per cent arrears.
She assured that once the money is available, it would commence payment.
“For this administration, pensioners and their next of kin are a priority. We have been paying the next of kin of verified pensioners and we will continue to pay. We want to ensure that all eligible pensioners are captured and paid their pension regularly as and when due. That is what this verification exercise is for. ”
On whether pensioners stand to benefit from the new minimum wage, Ejikeme said: “It’s a given. Salaries and Wages Commission will get back to us to let us know what percentage is accruable to pensioners. We’ve made provision for it in 2020 budget. You will get it.”
On health insurance for pensioners, the PTAD boss said plans were on to launch a comprehensive health insurance scheme for them.
Said she: “Lets first remove ghost pensioners and then the next thing is working on further welfare for pensioners. As a medical doctor, I appreciate the need for that. Once you age, there is degeneration of the body and your pocket gets thinner and you can no longer spend as much as you did when you were younger and working. So, that is why we are taking the welfare of pensioners very seriously. We will work closely with the unions on this.”
She went on to assure all retirees that their money was safely kept in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s coffers, under the Treasury Single Account policy, stressing that no one would touch it.
Also commenting on the backlog of unpaid pension, the spokesman of PenCom, Mr. Peter Aghahowa, said it was being cleared, adding that as government released funds, they would be we cleared.
“Our last payment was for August 2018, so we have about a year outstanding. That is why verification is an annual exercise for those that will retire in the coming year. We determine the pension liabilities well ahead of time,” he said.
For those not captured during the scheduled verification exercise, Aghahowa explained that the verification and enrolment would continue nationwide.
“If you’re medically unfit or you are not around for one reason or the other to take part in this two-day exercise, there’s a process in place to verify and enrol you. Anyone not captured can come to our office for it. Once this process is done, they have to go to their PFA for the mode of retirement benefits they want. Their accrued rights ought to have been paid by then too. Let them get their NIN because, by law, it is mandatory and now integrated into the system. It’s one of the requirements at the PFA level.”