PRESS STATEMENT ON PENSION BILL
The Federal Universities Pensioners Association (FUPA) wishes to commend the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for passing the Pension Reform Act (Amendment) Bill 2013.
This action has been long awaited from the Senate and the entire National Assembly, especially given the diligent and eye-opening investigation by the legislature into sharp practices in various Pension Departments.
Such lootings have brought untold hardship and untimely deaths upon pensioners.
We therefore welcome the Senate’s patriotic endorsement of the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan Administration’s move to reposition the pension system.
In particular, we commend the Senate for providing for the creation of new offences and for harsher penalties against the infractions on pension law and all forms of mismanagement or diversion of pension funds and assets under any guise. Those who steal pension funds do not have mercy on the elderly and weak and deserve harsher punishment, which this law has tried to entrench.
We commend the Senate for endorsing the move to properly establish the Pension Transition Arrangement Departments (PTADs) to now take over the payment of benefits to pensioners who retired under the old or Defined Benefits Scheme from the various Pension Departments. This will enable pensioners under this to now receive their pensions directly without the funds passing through third parties, being the various Pensions Departments.
We further endorse the lowering of the minimum years of experience required for appointment as the Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) from 20 to 15 years, even though we had thought the Senate should have gone lower than that in line with local and international best practices in pensions and financial regulatory agencies.
The issue of experience in Nigeria is sometimes taken beyond all reasonableness. It is not how long you have stayed in the office that makes you an experienced or honest person. Integrity and sound and creative contributions to the system matter most. Indeed, often, the older you are in a position, the more you lose. With ten years’ cognate experience and integrity, you can be more positively aggressive, robust, and do better. We should learn to give opportunity to people who are growing because they have the exuberance and the passion to prove themselves.
We urge the House of Representatives to urgently respond to the suffering of pensioners and emulate the Senate in passing the Bill immediately.
The labour and pensioners should collaborate more to make pensioners’ welfare a major issue in the 2015 general election. Those who do not have the welfare of pensioners at heart; who play politics with the plight of pensioners; and who steal or encourage the stealing of pension funds must be voted out at all levels.
Dr. Ayuba Kura
President, Federal Universities Pensioners Association
