It has existed for four decades as a trade union and an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). But, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), a body overseeing the welfare of retirees, is threatened. Its leadership is rocked with allegations that some of its members belong to the pension fraud syndicate, reports OMOBOLA TOLU-KUSIMO.
The stage seems set for a big crisis in the pension industry. Spoiling for war are pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) and their Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) umbrella body. An affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the NUP oversees the welfare of pensioners.
An allegation by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, that some NUP officials stole pension funds, stirred the hornet’s nest.
Malami AGF confirmed the existence of a pension fraud syndicate, allegedly led by Abdulrasheed Maina, the fugitive former civil servant. He said the syndicate operated with some NUP executive members.
He said there were 16,238 ghost pensioners and that N839 million was paid to fictitious pensioners monthly.
He alleged that nine accounts were maintained with some banks by the syndicate for public officials, adding that about N200 million was remitted into the accounts monthly.
The revelation infuriated the pensioners, many of whom have not received their gratuities, several years after retirement.
The pensioners are accusing their leaders of financial recklessness, inefficiency and insensitivity in addressing their welfare.
While many of the more than 300,000-members of the union abused their leaders, others have opted out of the crisis-ridden union. They pleaded with the Federal Government to relate with them under another umbrella.
Things fall apart
Members of a splinter group, tagged NUP All Sectoral Units (ASU), identified themselves as pensioners from federal parastatals and private companies. They emerged from the old DBS and the new Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
They claimed to have operated under the NUP for many years.
A statement signed by the group’s Chairman Rasaq Ope reads: “We are pensioners from federal parastatals and private companies, both under the DBS and CPS. We identify with the change mantra of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, particularly its zero tolerance for corruption and congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari on his courage. “It gladdens our heart that even acts of outright embezzlement, connivances and misappropriations that occurred in the past are not ignored by this government of change.
“In this connection, we wish to disassociate ourselves from the corruption charges against some leaders of the NUP since we have consistently been opposed to leaders whose main objective in unionism is to make money, clean or dirty.
“To buttress our claims, we shall go the memory lane to inform the general public of our consistent efforts to resist leadership that refused to be transparent but at the same time accusing others – a case of a burglar accusing the house-owner of extravagancy over what he owns or acquired legitimately.
“The connivance of some national leaders of the union in the pension fraud between April, 2008 and March 2011, which resonated in Abdul-Rasheed Abdullahi Maina’s case as reported in the national newspaper of October 30, 2017, is one case too many.
“When the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) waded into the matter and arrested some officers, our leaders kept the entire National Executive Council (NEC) members, including chairmen and secretaries of the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and all the different sectors from the federal parastatal and private companies, in the dark.
“Please note that the President Dr. Abel Afolayan was the National Vice President then. He was in the position for nine years before coming on board as president of the union for the fifth year.
“Bringing his tenure as a principal officer of the union to over 13 unbroken years, what differences have been noted? Apart from the billions involved in the above-mentioned case, several millions of naira from pensioners’ contributions was spent on the case without any disclosure to NEC and when we, the leaders of federal parastatal and private company pensioners, agitated to know the facts, we were not only silenced but labelled rebels. We have reports of accounts showing amount expended on litigation without disclosure of what cases was being prosecuted.
“When it became impossible to access free, illegal funds as in the pension fraud between 2008 and 2011, some leaders at the national level embarked on reckless use of contributions from state, federal civil service, parastatal and private company pensioners, particularly under the leadership. For example, the account report of 2004 showed that N132 million was spent on miscellaneous, instead of N10 million. We questioned the leadership on this budget recklessness only to our harm. Since then, amount spent annually on miscellaneous is usually more than three times higher than salaries and allowances in NUP.
“Added to the above is the divide-and-rule posture of the leadership, where deliberate actions are taken to destabilise sectors or groups of pensioners perceived as enemies to their selfish interests, as they manipulate process of elections to remain in office.
“With these prevailing circumstances, we considered all legally available options to sanitise the union but the best alternative for us was to cry to the Ministry of Labour & Employment as a group, praying for the regrouping of the union.
“Having established that NUP is inefficient and ineffective in addressing the needs of the pensioners due to a monopolistic advantage, the Ministry set machinery in motion to reduce the workload on NUP for efficiency. Yes, among those lined up with us in seeking autonomy from the docile NUP, that knows nothing other than fighting over check-off dues, are the contributory pensioners.”
In the same vein, the NUP Chairman, Electricity Sector (ES) chapter, Temple Ubani, said the crux of the matter is that all the federal parastatals, including energy and, education, are not happy with the union.
He alleged that the NUP leaders collected check-off dues from them and do nothing to protect them. The check-off due, according to him, is one per cent deduction on every pensioner. It is a voluntary contribution.
“We have the problem of harmonisation but they never call for it. The 33 per cent increase which former President Goodluck Jonathan approved 53.34 per cent has also not been resolved. They don’t even care who have received the 33 per cent and who have not received it. Pensioners pension has not been harmonised. We, at NUP ES, have been able to harmonise our pension through our platform.
”This is why we are the highest paying pensioners apart from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Central Bank of Nigeria pensioners that have their own systems. Other Federal Government pensioners earn lower. Some NIPOST pensioners earn N5000, N10,000 as monthly pension. This is because NUP and their sectoral unit have not been able to harmonise their pension. Pensioners are suffering, particularly under this exco of the NUP. There is nothing they do for pensioners. They just rely on the check-offs, which is automatic. They make billions of naira, yet they cannot afford a befitting secretariat. There are about 255 parastatals that are under the DBS and the majority of them are not with the NUP.
“The most important thing for us is for us to disassociate ourselves from the Maina scam. The matter has been in court. Ali Abacha, who was the National President and Elder Actor Zac, who was the Secretary, are still in the position, were the major people who are charged to court by the EFCC. Abacha left after serving out his two terms but Zac is still there because the position of the Secretary is permanent. But when the issue came up between 2012 and 2013, they were arrested by EFCC and charged to court.
“But following the statement by the AGF, we asked them to step down. Afolayan cannot deny that he does not know anything about it because he was first vice president for eight years when those things happened. He has spent five years as national president.
In a different twist, another group named Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme Sector (NUPCPS) signed by Chairman, Comrade Udo S. M., Vice Chairman, Comrade Syva Nwaiwu and Secretary Publicity Secretary, Comrade Adebayo Martins urged the Minister not to listen to the Union.
While appreciating the Minister for his role during their inauguration last February 27, as an affiliate member of the NUP, the union leaders stated that the NUP before and after their inauguration has been championing the cause of CPS retirees.
They noted that the group urging him to help in registering another Union of contributory pensioners is doing so only for its own selfish interest. It is on record at the Presidency, National Assembly and the NLC that NUP is actively fronting for the welfare of all pensioners, especially those under the CPS. It is, therefore, uncalled for, for any CPS retiree or group of retirees to allege that NUP is in any way marginalising pensioners under the CPS.
“Moreover, it is important for the Minister to note that leaders of the group pestering him to register another union for them are mostly people of his ethnic extraction. Not only that, they have been boasting of using that advantage over NUP to achieve their quest to bypass the rule of law and due process to register their own conceived Union. We want to state categorically that at NUP our interest is being taken care of and we have not at anytime made any request or apply for registration of a separate trade union apart from NUP from the Minister. Those doing so are only doing so in their own selfish interest and parochial agenda. We appeal to the Minister of Labour not to allow himself to be used to truncate our union.
“We are grateful to President Muhammadu Buhari and his APC-led government for their earnest intervention in the crisis going on in the pension industry. We are, particularly, grateful to them because they were dauntless in arresting the situation, despite that the huge pension liabilities in this sector were caused by the immediate past PDP government who, in their recklessness in spending public funds, invaded pension funds set aside for the payments of accrued rights to retirees. There is no doubt that the President Buhari-led APC government has proven its change mantra in the pension sector. We, therefore, appeal to Mr. President and the National Assembly not to rest in their oars in releasing more bailout funds to clear the backlog of arrears for CPS retirees of January 2017 to date.
Meanwhile, some aggrieved members of NUP Electricity Sector have asked the Minister to stay clear of union politics.
NUP (ES) Caretaker Committee Chairman, Abel Eikhor, accused Chief Ubani of going through the back door to register his new association, Electricity Sector Retirees Welfare Association (ESREWA) with the support of the Minister.
Hear him: “Chief Ubani resorted to seek assistance from the minister after he met a brick wall at the registrar of Trade Unions, which responsibilities are to protect, defend and promote the well-being and the interest of workers and pensioners alike. Having been denied registration by the RTU, he decided to get ESREWA registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
“The CAC can only register business names and such companies cannot function as trade unions. When it dawned on him that ESREWA cannot function as a trade union, he went back to his kinsman, the Minister to seek further assistance. We are reliably informed that the minister is considering registering the association (ESREWA) using Section 3(2) of the Trade Union Act to do so.
“Article 3(2) states: “No combination of workers or employees shall be registered as a trade union save with the approval of the Minister on his being satisfied that it is to register the union either by regrouping existing trade unions, registering a new trade union or otherwise. But no trade union shall be registered to represent workers or employees in a place where there already exists a trade union”
We have it on good authority that for the minister to pacify his tribal man having already lost out in the power play going on in the electricity sector, the Minister is banking on this section to claim he wants to regroup the NUP by creating the electricity sector out of it.
“We, the electricity sector pensioners, want to make a bold statement to the minister to stay clear of union politics. We have not approached him for any membership registration and, of course, there is even no need for such as NUP is already adequately catering for the interest of the electricity sector pensioners. We are by law an affiliate member of the NUP and we have no reason to seek for a registration of our own. Our plea, therefore, is for the Minister to please leave us alone and let us enjoy peace in our union.”
Eikhor further said when Ubani’s first effort failed, he changed tactics and proposed another name, Electricity Sector Pensioners Union, to the minister for registration.
Ubani emphasised that the only body authorised to register trade unions in Nigeria is the Registrar of Trade Unions and not the Minister of Labour and Employment. He, therefore, urged the minister to distance himself from anything that contradicts the laws of the land and not bring his office to disrepute and ridicule it in the labour movement.
The ASU Chairman, Alhaji Ope, said it was shameful and absurd for the inefficient NUP to acknowledge that contributory pensioners group was inaugurated last February 27. ‘’What has NUP been doing before the scheme was imposed on pensioners since 2004 when it became law?” he asked.
Ope said the truth was that there had been a much larger body with nationwide spread within NUP named Federal Contributory Pensioners Association since 2012, and that leaders of this group found no comfort in NUP; rather, NUP was using them to fight for more check-off dues without even understanding their problems.
“Now, because this NUP Electricity Sector identifies with our progressive and focused approach, the NUP hurriedly gathered some innocent contributory pensioners in Abuja to cause confusion. But we are happy that the Ministry of Labour and Employment is very much aware of all the pranks NUP is playing,” he said
According to Ope, the various attacks on the minister are futile efforts and no amount of misrepresentation and absolute lies could change the fact that NUP national headquarters, over the years, has shown lack of capacity to care for pensioners. He also said some state councils were doing better than the national headquarters, both in human management and in the constructive use of funds. He said the evidence is clear for anyone who cares to see that pensioners’union was not registered to enrich its leaders.
“How does it sound that out of about 24 national posts in NUP, only one is reserved for the Federal Civil Service and the federal parastatal pensioners?,” Ope asked, noting: “We are better off on our own than remain in a marriage of inconvenience with a local government and state government pensioners dominated union. We have suffered enough under the tyranny of NUP.
“We thank President Buhari for his anti-corruption crusade and pledge our support. We also appeal to the Minister of Labour and Employment not to give any thought to the ranting of visionless individuals or groups, who do not mean well for this country and for Federal Civil Service andfederal parastatal retirees. We urge him not be distracted.”
NUP President denies allegation
Afolayan has denied being part of the pension syndicate that connived to steal over N20 billion fund in the Mainagate pension scandal.
In an interview with The Nation, Afolayan said some NUP former executives were alleged culprits in the Maina scandal.
He however disclosed that he was part of the former executive as the second national president and as such, he is aware of the case.
He affirmed that the syndicate were able to operate smoothly with the connivance of the NUP.
But he absolved himself and his colleagues of the scandal.
He stressed that the allegation against the former executives has since been a matter of litigation at the Abuja High Court, Abuja.
He said: “What the Attorney-General said about NUP being part of pension fraud syndicate does not concerns us. It concerns the former – our predecessors. The aspect that involves the NUP president has been in court.
“I was the second national president and so I know about the case. I assumed office as National President in August 2013 after the alleged fraud, which occurred between 2012 and 2013. But the matter has being in court for the past four years. The leadership of the NUP has also for the past four years been going to court,” he added.
The union spokesperson, Comrade Bunmi Ogunkolade, alleged that Ubani has been removed since last April, hence he could not call for the regrouping of the union.
He said they had established another exco and over 1000 pensioners from the NUP (ES).
He further alleged that the minister has been listening to his group because they are from the same tribe.
“The union have asked the minister to disregard proposals from some group to regroup the union. He lost out in the power play and he cannot create a parallel union. But he can approach the elders for mediation and reconciliation, if he likes. He can come to the national headquarters and they will accept him.
“The contributory pensioners are not paying check-off dues and we have been supporting them to ensue they receive their pensions as and when due. So it is not true that we are inefficient in the areas of pensioners welfare.”
Ministry reacts
Meanwhile, the Ministry has denied the allegation of aiding and abetting. An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted that some proposals had been submitted to the ministry by various pension groups. He, however, debunked alleged bias, noting that the minster does not know Chief Ubani.
Pensioners lament
Pensioner Williams Olabode is 78 years old. He has never received pension, neither is he on the Federal Government’s pay roll. “I have faith that one day, I will receive my pension. The issue of corruption is very deep in the country. But with Buhari, I am hopeful.
“I retired in 2006. I received gratuity, but did not get pension. I am not even on payroll,” he said.
Olabode said he was not a ghost worker and so there was no reason they would not put him on pay roll. “I am not the only one. I want the Pension Transitional Directorate Department (PTAD) to put me on payroll, so that they can pay my pension arrears,” he added.
Olabode lamented that he worked at the Federal Ministry of Works, now Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, and had done various verification, but yet o be put on payroll.
Another pensioner, Mrs Felicia Adebayo, 80, retired in 1989 at the Ministry of Education, but is still being owed her federal share of her pension. “I have done several verifications. I appeal to Buhari to put us first, she said, accusing some people of stealing pensioners’ money.
Similarly, 88-year-old Mr Emeka Anyanwu, who retired from the Ministry of Works, lamented that his pension was stopped. “Now, I am owed about 10 years’ arrears. We are not being treated well. We were robbed of our pension by Maina and they are not able to arrest him.
“We are appealing that the Federal Government should pay us our pension before we die. President Buhari should help us,” he appealed.
