Pension

Pension: Nightmare in the Nigerian Society

Nuhsodah Wanapia

Everybody doing one thing or the other requires a form of reward. The reward could be immediate, meeting the needs of the person concerned and could be spread into the future to take care of him when he is not strong enough to work. For example, a farmer may plough and plant some seeds now with the goal to feed and cater for his immediate family and should there be excess (income) plough such excess is plough back into investment with the intention of receiving returns to cater for him and his family when he is no longer strong to farm or the weather does not warrant such. That is possibly the most reason why people that have foresight always invest what they consider as excess income in the capital market so that at one time or the other such investment would yield some useful returns.

The civil servant having put all his life in civil service would naturally expect to be rewarded. His immediate returns are by ways of salaries and wages, while his long time rewards are by the ways of pensions and gratuity. The thought that one day he would be rewarded by ways of pension and gratuity also serves as security.

But that is not tenable in Nigeria. The thought of it is a nightmare to a lot of serving civil servants. It is supposed to guarantee his continuous existence. It is also the thought of receiving reward by ways of pension and gratuity that should guarantees the later acquisition of assets such as residence, a car, a consultancy service, and many more that makes a civil servant continually put in his best during his service period.

The truth is that these dreams are constantly dashed thus, exposing the retirees to a life of untold hardship and penury that can be better imagined and for this reason, so many of them (pensioners) have died waiting to received their dues. Naturally, a person having successfully worked and retired is expected to live for a period of 15-20 years for men and 20-25 years for women. During this time, such a person is expected to live on his pension and gratuity and if such is not coming as is the case with retirees from both the federal, state and local government, the hardship experienced by these people is great and suffocating.

Pension and gratuity are welfare packages for retired civil servants. It is the sum of money paid regularly to a person who no longer works because of age or disablement or to his widow or dependent children, by the state, his former employer or from funds to which he and his employer have both contributed. After retirement pension is expected to be paid monthly to the retiree. The computation of this benefit is based on how long one has put into service and the rank at which one has retired.

The graduation of pension percentage ranges from 30% to 80% of ones annual income which is computed and paid per annum, the sum total obtained is now divided by twelve. It is this stipend that is expected to keep a retiree for the rest of his life.

Terminal pension are paid to deceased beneficiary. It is also obtained by computing and period of service and multiple by five years which in turn is summed up with whatever figure that is obtained as gratuity.

A civil servant, either at the state, federal or local government level, is qualified to draw pension if he has put in a minimum of 10 years in the service and the maximum of 35 years. A person is however not qualified to draw pension if he has not attained the age of 45 even if he has served for required qualified period of pension. However, the amount computed for such a one could wait till the age of 45 is attained.

Gratuity on the other hand is a lump-sum amount of money paid to an employee of either of the three tiers of government on leaving the service but must have served for a minimal period of 5 years. For gratuity, the lowest percentage of total emolument payable is 100% and that is for a person that has put in a minimum period of 5 years. The highest percentage of emolument payable per annum as gratuity is 300% and that is for the person that has put in 35 years of service. Other percentages are graduated according to service period ranging from 6 to 35 years.

It should be noted that while pension per annum increase by 2%, similarly, a review in salary proportionately also results in change in pension and gratuity.

The administration of pension and gratuity has become a teething problem in this country. What baffles me is that these identified and recurrent problems are not well tackled. Late Chief Bola Ige once described pension as "ticking time bomb" - because the bill is choking the country. I disagree with such view because the Nigerian State has enough money not only to pay pensioners their dues but to also cater for the unemployed. It shows the uncaring attitude of our leaders. Paying pensioners their entitlement is not a favour neither are they liabilities to the gove rnment. It is their right. Pensioners should not be treated as destitute. Even the destitute have rights and obligations. Retirement is not a crime. Those in charge of the administration of pension should remember that retirement will dawn on them sooner or later. Even for selfish reasons, they are supposed to ensure the betterment of retirees. Retirees shouldn’t be left to suffer unnecessarily or die in the course of waiting for their benefits. They have their families to cater for. They have bills to settle. Moreover, they are senior citizens and supposed to be given preferential treatment in everything. What Nigeria is today and the shape it will take tomorrow has its foundation in the contribution of these old folks.

But why is the administration of pension and gratuity in Nigeria so problematic?

It shows that there are no adequate plans to fully incorporate those that are retired and make provision for those who will retire in the shortest possible time. People that retired are most likely to face problems as their dues would not be paid to them.

Mismanagement seems to be a brand name in most organizations, a common phenomenon in the third world countries. It comes in different size and shapes where the ingenuity of some selfish few is misused for fraudulent manipulations. Most employees that work in government establishments that handle pension and gratuity matters are found to be very fraudulent in their dealings. This they do by inflating the pension payroll by including fictitious, non-existent and/or ghost pensioners on the payroll. Through these means, monies meant for persons rightfully retired go into personal coffers of these selfish few and that explains why pensioners suffer and wallow in abject poverty. While pensioners are denied their entitlements, these selfish few engage themselves in the life of affluence by buying expensive cars, building expensive houses leaving those that serve the country faithfully left at the mercy of poverty.

Another way in which these workers feed fat on the pensioners benefits is by swapping stations or pay point of retirees to their benefits. For example, a pensioner whose pay point is in Jalingo is intentionally indicated to be paid in Damaturu or Ogoja and vice-versa. When this poor pensioner is unable to trace his name in his supposed pay point he gives up, but unknown to him these pension are claimed by persons other than him.

Again, these selfish few maintains the names of reportedly dead pensioners on the pay roll but refuse to pay their next-of-kins. Such a practice would continue for a period of time until the rightful persons gives up pursuing these payments.

Yet another way is to falsify the documents of retirees by the employees in the pension institution.

Further still, the summation of the total amount payable are wrongfully indicated. For example, a bill of said 15 million is indicated to be 17million or 18million.Thus an unwarranted increase on the pension being paid for the period.

Outright embezzlement is also evident. Here the funds meant for the payment of retirement benefits are carted away and/or misappropriated. By this means both the pensioners and the government are cheated.

To cope these problems, the government tiers should provide sufficient funds to cater for the welfare needs of our senior citizens. These people have put in the better part of their lives in the service of their fatherland, it is appropriate that they should be commensurately rewarded.

Any worker of a pension agency, found to have looted public fund entrusted to his/her care should be made to face the music, that is to be dealt with in accordance to the law. In addition, assets of such persons should be confiscated.

Pension laws should be reformed to the extent that the pensioners contribute a certain percentage for the rainy days. Therefore, the federal government‘s pensions contributory scheme is a right step in the right direction.

Pensioners themselves should be tutored to invest in some useful ventures that would bring in returns both during their service times and thereafter.

Persons of proven integrity and with a high degree of honesty sincerity should be appointed to man the pension’s agencies.

Nigeria has a lot of problems to solve not to manage. Issue like poor pensioning is one of such problems that need to be tackled once and for all and should not be a course of alarm.

Nuhsodah Wanapia

Department of Mass Communication

University of Maiduguri