By Edet Udoh
With the delay spanning several months on the inauguration of the reconstituted boards of some agencies, Labour unions are mounting pressures on the federal government and blaming the supervising ministers for the lack of direction in the sectors involved.
Some of the agencies are the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF),and the National Pension Commission (PenCom)
Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) including Civil Societies said the Federal Government should inaugurate their boards without further delay to strengthen them.
Federal Government in August 2017 nominated former General Secretary of NUPENG, Frank Kokori as the Chair of the board with Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Peters Adeyemi, Treasurer of NLC, Khaleel Ibrahim, representatives of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Managing Director of NSITF and the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment who represents the Ministry on the board as members of NSITF.
Also, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, a year later in July 2018 promised its inauguration within weeks noting that it would assist in the implementation of work of audit committee that looked into the alleged financial infractions in the Fund.
Till date however, the board has yet to be inaugurated.
Both Director-General of NECA, Timothy Olawale and the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Ayuba Wabba, who spoke at different occasions were disappointed that more than one year after President Muhammadu Buhari reconstituted the boards, some Ministers have allegedly remained defiant to the directive of the President.
NECA boss pointed out that the concerned Ministers’ failure to inaugurate the boards contravenes the laws that set up the gencies and that such action is inimical to continued growth of the agencies.
Olawale cited section 19 of the Pension Reform Act 2014 that provides for a governing board of PenCom saddled with responsibilities, said it raises a fundamental governance issue, as contributors’ funds from employers and workers in Nigeria are involved.
Against running government institutions as a personal business which is contrary to stipulated rules, the NECA Scribe said that the implication of total absence of governance framework, which is meant to regulate the activities of the agencies, three and half years down after dissolution of previous boards, is unfortunate especially for a government that prides itself in the rule of law.
Therefore, he urged government to ensure and encourage the practice of good corporate governance at all levels, adding that they should be run in line with their enabling acts.
The President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Ayuba Wabba during the investigative hearing into the activities of PENCOM from April 2017 to date and the alleged violation of PENCOM reform Act explained that the law did not envisage at any point that a board would not be in place.
“That is why if you look at the Act when referring to the commission it says the commission shall be made up of a chairman, the director general, four commissioners and the management staff.
“All of them together make up the board of management.
“Nowhere in the Act is it envisaged that the board will remain dissolved for a long time and it will not be constituted.
“Apart from the chairman and the director general, the other four members are supposed to represent institutions, including the pensioners themselves and the trade unions,” he said.
According to him, what is happening now is that “our heads were shaved in our absence and it is not supposed to be so.
“We demand that in respecting the Act the board should be put in place because every board member has a role to play.
“The board has been given clear responsibilities.
“If the board was in place all these questions would not have arisen because every interest, including the interest of the contributor, which was strategic, would be protected.
“It is fundamental that we demand that this board be constituted because it is not like any other board. Our demand is that this Act be respected.
“It is a board that is saddled with the responsibility of protecting the billions and trillions of Naira that belongs to the pensioners,’’ he said.
“It is a clear violation of the provision of pension Act for any employer to deduct employer-employee contribution and fails to remit.
“On the issue of violation, let me say emphatically that there are employers that deduct and don’t remit. I can give you a lot of instances.
“In Ogun State today, we have a case of about 106 months, deduction have been made, remittance has not been made.
“Therefore, we want a very stringent measure to be taken, including payment of interest where such a situation is identified.
“We must ensure that the funds are safe and are remitted as at when due,” he said.
Wabba said: “as you are aware everything we are talking about including the funds belongs to the workers who are potential pensioners.
“Therefore everything about the money belongs to the workers.
“When people hear of trillions of Naira in pension funds, they think the money does not belong to anybody. The money belongs to somebody who is a worker today.
“His expectation is that the money should be invested in a very secured business that will be yielding interest that he will benefit from.
“Pencom is a regulator that is supposed to regulate these funds and ensure that all regulations first safeguard the funds and secondly yield maximum return to the end beneficiary who is the pensioner.’’
The NLC President drew attention to the issue of gratuity, which he said was very critical. “I am not sure that there is anywhere in the law that gratuity was abolished because if we pay severance it also means that the worker is entitled to gratuity.’’
According to him, gratuity is like appreciating the work that the worker had done either at 60 years of age or 35 years in service.
“This issue of gratuity must continue to be paid to workers on retirement because in most cases worker don’t save.
“It is usually the gratuity they will use which is the first means of settling down and having a new life all together,” he said.
PenCom Board was dissolved and its DG Chinelu Anohu-Amazu in April 2017 alongside 23 heads of MDA’s and parastatals.
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