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Obituary for pensioners
CHUMA IFEDI
The
extant constitution of Nigeria provides in Section 173 that the right of a
person in the public service of the federation to receive pension or gratuity
shall be regulated by law. This, pension rights are protected. Pension shall be
reviewed every five years or together with any federal civil service salary
reviews whichever is earlier. Pension in respect of service in the public
service of the federation shall not be taxed. Contrary to these provisions, the
present democratic government treats pensions with levity virtually regarding it
as a privilege to be dispensed at its discretion.
In the annual budgets, provisions are made
for pensions of the core civil service, comprising the ministries and of course
the presidency, the Police and the Armed Forces. Generous allocations ensure
that the core civil servants receive their gratuities and pensions as and at
when due. In respect of the so-called parastatals such as the Nigerian Railway
Corporation, Coal Corporation, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and other
unviable corporations, there is hardly any provisions for pensions even though
bureaucrats of the federal civil service are fully aware that those bodies have
no financial resources to foot the pensions bill. A case in point is the
Nigerian Railway Corporation which has about 20,000 pensioners. Arrears of
outstanding pensions have accumulated up to twenty-four months. The monthly
requirement for Railway pensions is N250 million per month. Yet, the presidency
submitted only a budget of N1 billion naira for 2004. The National Assembly cut
the amount to N500 million for 2004 and transferred the balance of N500 million
to exigencies for the National Assembly. So far, no pensions have been paid to
Railway retirees for over two years. President Olusegun Obasanjo gets his
pensions regularly. So also retired military officers. Pensioners of the various
ministries receive pensions every month.
The question everybody is asking is;
...Why the double standard in paying public service pensions? Why the dichotomy?
Why are parastatals relegated to the background? Why is the Minister of Finance
indifferent to the tragic neglect of the pensioners of federal corporations? Why
does the president show undue bias against the welfare of pensioners of
parastatals? Is there any conspiracy to terminate the lives of pensioners of the
Nigerian Railway Corporation prematurely? Whereas General Sani Abacha
transferred the payment of Railway pensions to the Federal Ministry of
Establishments, President Obasanjo apparently reversed the decision unilaterally
causing unprecedented hardship to the embattled pensioners.
According to the 1996 federal budget,
pensioners were promised a reasonable standard of living with a comfortable
minimum income. General Sani Abacha assured the nation that appropriate
arrangements would be made for regular payment of pensions. In a similar vein,
the 1997 federal budget expressed deep sympathy on the deplorable plight of
pensioners whose take-home stipend had dwindled due to the crippling economic
depression. Furthermore, the former Head of state affirmed that efforts would be
intensified to avoid discrimination against the parastatals in pensions
administration. General Sani Abacha transferred the payment of Railway pensions
to the Federal Ministry of Establishments.
What makes the ill-treatment of Railway
pensioners most painful is that the Nigerian Railway Pensions Fund which was
prudently invested in the Crown Agents in England was looted by the National
Party of Nigeria between 1979 and 1983 under President Shehu Shagari. The
grapevine reported that much of the money went into election campaign expenses
of the party. Consequently, there has been inadequate money to cater for the
rising number of Railway retirees. It is unfortunate that helpless old men and
women are being made to suffer for the reckless misconduct of politicians.
One is astonished that our peripatetic
president who travels all over the world unnecessarily and observes what happens
to pensioners in the United States of America, Great Britain and elsewhere in
the globe has not found it desirable to improve the life of public service
pensioners in Nigeria. The same president who runs the most bloated presidential
bureaucracy on earth with hundreds of advisers, liaison officers and assortment
of aides ignores the pathetic circumstances of its senior citizens. This human
tragedy happens at a time when the extended family system no longer prevails to
provide the critical needs of retirees.
The Senior Citizens Congress of Nigeria,
of which this writer is the president, is terribly alarmed at the agonising
dehumanisation of the pensioners of the Nigerian Railway Corporation. Kindred
associations of elders in the United States of America such as the United
Seniors Association, National Association of Senior Friends as well as the
American Association of Retired Persons have recently written to express their
indignation in respect of the brutal treatment of retirees in Nigeria. They have
enjoined retired old men and women to mobilise forces to fight the inhuman
treatment meted to them by an insensitive government. They appealed to Nigerian
pensioners not to indulge in self pity but to utilise all constitutional means
at their disposal to fight for their statutory rights.
In his "Democracy Day" speech last month,
President Olusegun Obasanjo affirmed: "Democracy is at the heart of it all
People: their welfare, and well being, security, hope, fulfilment, rights,
dreams, capacities, engagements, challenges, problems and of course solutions."
Yet, he subjects pensioners to hell while he enjoys unprecedented paradise. This
is transparent hypocrisy and naked deceit. Nigerians want to see at first hand
leadership by example not empty precepts.
Before more Railway pensioners die of
poverty and starvation, President Obasanjo and his Finance Minister should
expedite action to pay the arrears of pensions to retirees of the Nigerian
Railway Corporation and other unviable parastatals. Already, about 6,700
pensioners of the Nigerian Railways have reportedly died in the last five years.
Rather than roaming the globe without achieving any visible results, our
president must stay at home and face the major problems confronting the nation.
His peripatetic style of governance has been counterproductive.
The time is overdue to establish the
National Pensions Commission which will oversee and monitor the payment of
pensions. One expects the federal government at this point in time to accord
pensions the priority it deserves in our scheme of workers’ rights. We have now
arrived at an ugly situation in which workers fraudulently alter their dates of
birth in order to postpone the date of retirement. As one engineer in the
Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria put it: "The fear of retirement is the
beginning of wisdom". But, for how long will ageing workers postpone the evil
day?
The corruption in the public service has
reached extreme proportions because workers are anxious to provide for the rainy
day since pensions can no longer be guaranteed. Nobody quarrels with the
Pensions Reform law which has introduced contributory pensions in the public
service. What matters at present is the urgent settlement of outstanding
pensions. The growing mortality rate among pensioners is the result of the
sadism of President Obasanjo and the female Minister of Finance. The touching
counsel of James Garfield is instructive: "If wrinkles must be written upon our
brows. Let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old".
•Mr Ifedi lives in Satellite Town, Lagos.
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