The Nation Newspaper

Tag: pensions

  • LAUTECH to Oyo, Osun govts: use refund to pay our salaries, pensions

    THE Ladoke Akintola University chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday appealed to Oyo and Osun states governors to channel the latest tranche of the Paris Club loan refund into the payment of the outstanding salaries of workers and pensioners in the institution.

    It is also urged the governors of the two owner-states – Abiola Ajimobi and Rauf Aregbesola – to use the opportunity granted by the refund to solve the perennial funding problems that has brought LAUTECH to its knees.

    In a statement, LAUTECH’s ASUU Chairman and Secretary, Dr Biodun Olaniran and Dr Toyin Abegunrin asked the two governors to overlook whatever imagined sins committed by some staff members to warrant what they called “horrendous suffering unleashed on the system”.

    The union spokesmen maintained that the duo of Ajimobi and Aregbesola should consider the plight of over 30,000 students who have been at home for a very long time.

    They urged the governors to act fast in public interest by using the opportunity of the windfall to address the LAUTECH matter.

    The ASUU statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to the release of another tranche of Paris Club Refund by the Federal Government to the states. This is done with an express advice to state governments to use the fund for settlement of indebtedness to workers and pensioners.

    “It is in this connection that our Union uses this medium to appeal to the governors of Oyo and Osun states to use the opportunity of this financial relief to solve the perennial funding problems that has brought LAUTECH to its knees.”

    ASUU further reminded the governors of the need to use public resources which they manage on behalf of the people to service public interests by funding the university properly.

    The union went on: “The governors are called upon to overlook whatever ‘imagined sins’ must have been committed by some staff members to warrant this horrendous suffering unleashed on the system.

    “They should use the milk of human kindness in them to pity the plight of the over 30,000 students who are wasting away the good part of their youthful energies at home. The university is a public institution ministering to the educational needs of the mass of poor citizen of the states.”

    The governors were also reminded by the union that they hold their “offices by the grace of the people to whom those positions rightly belong. So, using resources at their disposal of the state to service public interests like funding the university properly is part of the mandate and pact signed with the people.”

  • ‘Kwara not owing pensions, salaries’

    ‘Kwara not owing pensions, salaries’

    Kwara State is not owing  pensions and salaries, despite the economic situation in the country, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication to Kwara State Governor, Dr. Muyideen Oluwakorede, has said.

    In an interview with reporters, he said the governor was able to achieve this through the reform of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state.

    According to him, the governor was also able to reduce the cost of governance from about 40 per cent to 30 per cent.

    He said contrary to reports in a newspaper (not The Nation) that the state is owing 11 months’ salaries and pensions, the state does not have any pension or salary arrears.

    He said the only area where there are arrears is with the local government workers and pensioners.

    He said the local government is also not owing 11 months as speculated but only has various degrees of arrears of one and half months, three or six months depending on the IGR capacity and the allocation.

    He further explained that the local government is a different tier of government and in Kwara  autonomous.

    The governor’s aide said: “The state government is not owing any salary or pension. Except for local government situation, which is a different tier of government and with special regards to the case of Kwara State is autonomous. Their funds by law comes through the state and are allocated publicly by law by a body comprising the chairmen of the local government, their treasurers and the state commissioner for finance.

    “The local governments are not even owing 11 months as claimed. What we have is various degrees of arrears. Suffice to say that local government allocations have drop from about N2.7 billion on average to about N1.6 billion this month.

    ‘’Meanwhile, the local government council requires N2.1 billion to pay primary school and junior secondary school workers and pensioners, needless say running governance. So by their own decision they pay a proportion that a particular month covers and this has nothing to do with Kwara state government. This is just a situation with regards to the drop in allocation to all tiers of government in the country.

    “Despite the drop in allocation, the governor has often times come to the aid of the local governments by augmenting their allocation. The last one was to the tune of N280 million. But this funds has to be appropriated in the budget. Otherwise, the governor’s hands are tied to the extent that he cannot help the local government. The local government cannot be blame and it is not that we are making a case for them to owe. But if we look at it from the perspective of somebody that is to get N2.7 billion naira allocation and has now drop to N1.4 billion and they require 2.1 to be able to meet their financial obligation, such person will certainly have challenges in meeting with obligations.”

    Akorede noted that the problem of the local government also has to do with the fact that they are unable to generate enough revenue  to operate, pay salaries and pensions, including arrears.

    He however said the problem was not peculiar to the state local governments but also to others in the country.

    Oluwakorede  added that the basic issue affecting the councils was the significant drop in allocations, saying that not all local government were viable enough to create revenue to fund their operations.

  • Lagos up-to-date with pensions, salaries

    Lagos up-to-date with pensions, salaries

    The Lagos State government does not owe pensions and salaries, despite the economic constraints in the country, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has said.
    He said this was a laudable position, especially as revenues have significantly fallen while the cost of providing essential services has risen astronomically.
    The governor, represented by Commissioner for Establishment, Training, and Pension, Dr. Akintola Benson, spoke at the first bi-annual Lagos State Public Service Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) meeting.
    According to him, the state will ensure the welfare of stakeholders and in the public service in particular.
    He said: “The government pays salaries and pensions as and when due, even in the midst of biting financial and economic constraints. It embarked on projects that have both tangential and direct benefits on officers of the Lagos State Public Service, and the state at large.
    “These include the maintenance and opening up of new roads; Light Up Lagos Project; Housing for All; Eko Atlantic City project; building and rehabilitation of pedestrian bridges at Berger, Ojota bus stops, and many other locations.
    Others are expansion of bus stops and provision of additional buses for the Bus Rapid Transport initiative, and qualification for recognition as one of the 100 resilient cities in the world, an award earned because of the governor’s innovative leadership, investments in infrastructural development and widening influence.”

  • N14.5b Paris Club refund: Akwa Ibom groans under gratuities, pensions

    The Akwa Ibom State government has said the N14.5 billion refund it got from Paris Club cannot settle outstanding gratuities and pension.

    Special Adviser to the Governor on Labour Matters Mr Unyime Usoro, spoke yesterday in Uyo, the state capital, in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    Usoro said the refund was inadequate to offset backlogs accumulated over the years.

    He said: “Even if they want to use the entire N14.5 billion Paris club loan, it will not be able to settle all the outstanding gratuities and pension of workers.”

    The governor’s aide assured that part of the money would be used to settle arrears gratuities and pension.

    He said: “Governor Udom Emmanuel listened to the cry of the pensioners and the labour union, which have been battling over the years to see that entitlements are paid by the government.”

    Usoro said the Office of the Accountant-General and Commissioner for Finance would work out modalities for settling outstanding gratuities and pension.

    He said: “I think the governor has already done that. It is in black and white, when he sent a letter to the House of Assembly asking them to include the money in the 2017 budget.”

    The governor’s aide said the money would be paid in batches.

    He described the governor as a labour-friendly administrator, adding that during the festive periods, he gave bags of rice and cattle to the labour union.

    Usoro said: “I don’t think he would have done that. Of course, there are a lot of other things he has done that make him a labour-friendly governor.

    “Almost all the requests, the demands that Labour has brought before the governor, he has always done them.”

    The former state NLC chairman said Emmanuel promptly paid primary school teachers’ salary as well as others.

    On the labour movement crisis in the state, he said several meetings had been held to resolve challenges within organised labour.

    Usoro said the union resolved that the matter would be addressed internally.

    NAN recalls that the Federal Government released N14.5 billion to the Akwa Ibom State government as its share of the Paris Club refund to address welfare and development issues in the state.

  • Our Girls; FG: Corrupt port; Crippling Post-Office perks & pensions

    Our Girls; FG: Corrupt port; Crippling Post-Office perks & pensions

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. Please pray and work for their release even as negotiations are ongoing. If YOU do not pray for them, no one else will.
    Shamefully, Kaduna’s Azikiwe and other roads upgrade is done for out-of-towners using the airport while Abuja airport is closed and not for citizens of Kaduna. Governance is service not politics. We always do the right thing for the wrong reason. Why do citizens not matter to politicians? FILL ALL NIGERIA’S POTHOLES, not just the ones on Kaduna-Abuja Road. MAKE STRAIGHT OUR PATH.
    There is a tussle between the Federal Government’s ban on vehicles crossing road borders to enter the country and Senate and citizens opposing that move. I have on Sundays been overtaken by smuggled car convoys speeding to escape Customs at Ogere and other traps. The origin of using land borders is threefold.
    The first is the much touted huge delays, inefficiencies, demurrage fees and corruption at the Nigerian seaports with its multi-layered non-communicating and non-cooperating security arms, all feeding desperately from multiple administrative and actual road blocks.
    The second reason is simply to avoid or reduce customs tariffs and bribes, which the smugglers claim, and actually are, mysteriously reduced and cheaper in foreign African ports even added to the 200+ km tortuous and often illegal land routes than the 5km from a Tin Can Island Port ship to Apapa roundabout. How can a country operate when a 200km rough, dangerous, sometimes deadly route is more economical than a 5km journey from Apapa Port?
    Thirdly it shows the measure of the corruption and citizen’s confidence in Nigeria’s governance, where all security agencies malignantly bastardise an entire normal international shore-ship-shore transaction which now works so worthlessly that Nigerian citizens would rather ship to Ghana and Cameroon than face their own port- Lagos.
    Apparently the Senate has overturned the ban but there is no word on further cleaning- up of time wasting, the corruption and the multiple ‘long-room’ perpetual palaver at the ports. In spite of SERVICOM, ask yourself, who smiles when they have to go to the port, a police station, hospital or ministry? Government should understudy ports in small neighbouring countries and ‘Clean-up and streamline the port’, for every Nigerian. Only then will smuggling be for smugglers and not a necessity for everybody.
    Still on the expensive matter of Nigeria’s perpetual debts to past and present serving politicians and civil servants of variable moral background. Nobody would object to a reasonable stipend for duly elected leaders but how does a person who seizes power qualify?
    Already the same government drowns such political people in national honours while plaques weigh down their walls. In short, thieves, be they military, militancy, agbada or babanriga, banker, business, contractor, captains of industry, directors and shareholders manipulating stocks or topless thugs wielding machetes or cudgels and sagging jeans manipulating ‘FAF’-Free and Fair’- elections, all know that there is CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR ACTION. They protect themselves from those consequences. Yes, even thieves who since 1960s have deprived you of minimal standards of living. They can ‘see clearly now’ but sing ‘I don’t care’  about our consequently diseased, dying and dead from unfilled medical prescriptions and unfilled potholes. Indeed Nigeria once the pride of Africa, in its own estimation anyway, has come to vie for last place by many observers  as ‘the darkest spot’ of Africa with the weakest currency, poorest services, poorest social and indices and we seem so proud of our nothingness –near nakedness. Every one of the potholes COULD BE FILLED IN A DAY, WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY. Each pothole is a symptom of our political and engineering incompetence and screams ‘CORRUPTION’, as it halts traffic WITH CONSEQUENT BUSINESS DELAYS AND EXTRA FUEL CONSUMPTION AND REDUCED LIFE OF TYRES AND BRAKES. It consumes tyres and lives shedding the blood of the dead at the road side where too many are ‘lying dead in UNMARKED POTHOLES FIT FOR A KING’.  Let us judge the effects of these people still sucking Nigeria dry by millions daily even after most of them spent a lot of time sucking Nigeria dry while in office.
    Nigeria is in a bad state with among the lowest health and education indices and budgets worldwide and has been in decay since forever because of these people who boldly gather around the Council of State table to yet again pretend to ‘solve’ problems they often created.
    No one would expect a Nigerian ex-head of state to walk or drive around without a security detail fully paid for by Nigeria. But things have been taken too far under secrecy making each of them the equivalent of a President or Vice President or Governor for Life, a ‘CRIPPLING FIRST Line BUDGET BURDEN’ of Post-Office Perks & Pensions, without the ‘responsibility burden’ of the office.
    The horrifying revelations of the ‘perpetual burden of office holders on the nation’ was glimpsed when it was revealed that massive sums are being paid to even the families of late disgraced, un-great, rulers in Nigeria. We must add that this is going on for generals, and certainly for governors, perhaps commissioners, certainly past chairmen of Local Government Areas. So Nigeria has thousands of ‘perpetual dependents receiving exorbitantly juicy pensions, perks and transport, security. What hope for Nigeria between legally illegal pension laws and overt port corruption driving ‘business’ abroad?

  • Osun paid out N14.2b in salaries, pensions, says Aregbesola

    Osun paid out N14.2b in salaries, pensions, says Aregbesola

    •Salutes workers for support

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola yesterday said N14.2billion was paid out to workers and pensioners within two weeks before the end of December.
    Aregbesola spoke at an inter-faith thanksgiving session at the Government Secretariat, Osogbo.
    The governor, who laced his speech with songs of praises to God, said with what befell the state before the close of 2015; it was gratifying that the state bounced back.
    He said the ability of his government to pay salaries for September, October, November and December in less than two weeks was a huge relief.
    “We are grateful that our hardships are coming to an end, which indicates that the New Year would be better,” the governor said.
    The governor thanked workers for their understanding.
    He expressed optimism that by June, the recession would end.
    Appealing to all stakeholders to look inward, Aregbesola urged traditional rulers to promote agriculture in their respective domain just as he appealed to them to engage in vigorous campaigns for payment of taxes.
    “We want to engage massively in agriculture. We want to aggressively grow cassava, maize, plantain, rice, soya beans and cocoa, which our people are growing.
    “It is now clear that whoever is looking for free things will wait forever. It’s certain that oil price can no longer return to its old rates and free money won’t come again. If we don’t want to continue to suffer this lack, farming is the only venture we must embark on.”
    He assured that the government would give financial aides to those interested in farming.
    The governor also hinted that by February 1, his administration will enforce the use of standard measures and scales for all commercial transactions as part of efforts to make commerce attractive in Osun.

  • Govt mulls review of pensions

    Govt mulls review of pensions

    The Federal Government  would review pensions of pensioners in the country in line with the provisions of the enabling laws, The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has said.

    He said the government is determined to fully implement the provisions of section 173(3) of the constitution that makes review of pension compulsory every five years, or at any increment of salaries.

    Ngige, who spoke while receiving leaders of the Association of Contributory Pensioners of Nigeria (ACPN), said the Nigerian constitution is clear on how pension should be administered in the country, adding that once salaries of workers are reviewed, it will automatically affect pensions of retireses.

    He said: “The constitution is clear in section 173(3) on how pension should be administered. It is to be reviewed every five years, or upon an increment in salary. A review was done in 2011 on minimum wage, and once the minimum wage is touched, it should automatically affect the pension.

    “I am not a believer in George Orwell’s Animal Kingdom (Farm) where some animals are more equal than others. I do not believe in different yardstick for different persons; this is the law of nature and of creation; we are all created equal.  It is just that some people are more privileged than the others.”

  • ‘Nobody understands pensions’

    Pensions are impossible to understand and are harming Britons’ efforts to save the right amount of cash for later life, the Bank of England’s chief economist admitted last Wednesday.

    Andy Haldane, one of Britain’s most senior banking officials, said consumer confidence in the financial industry had been damaged because even he cannot make “the remotest sense” of most pension deals.

    “I consider myself moderately financially literate – yet I confess to not being able to make the remotest sense of pensions”

    In a scathing appraisal, he added that banks should use less jargon and speak more clearly as the system has been mired by the loss of the personal touch on the high street.

    His comments came after a series of reports found both high street and workplace pensions are too confusing for the general public. As many as six in 10  people do not feel they know enough about pensions to decide with confidence how to save for retirement.

    Mr Haldane confessed he and most top experts could make little sense of the system in a speech on trust in the financial sector.

    “To give a personal example, I consider myself moderately financially literate – yet I confess to not being able to make the remotest sense of pensions,” Mr Haldane said at the New City Agenda annual dinner.

    “Conversations with countless experts and independent financial advisers have confirmed for me only one thing – that they have no clue either. That is a desperately poor basis for sound financial planning.”

    As a result, Mr Haldane believes savers are struggling with big financial decisions, leaving them out of pocket.

    Culled from Telegraph

  • Ondo retirees berate Mimiko for non-payment of salaries, pensions

    Ondo retirees berate Mimiko for non-payment of salaries, pensions

    Labour retirees in Ondo State have berated Governor Olusegun Mimiko for his “refusal to pay salaries and pensions”.

    The Labour Veterans, led by former Labour Union leader, Pastor Oyekan Arije, said this when they visited the All Progressives Congress (APC) State Chairman, Isaac Kekemeke.

    The senior citizens were at Kekemeke’s office to show support for the APC in the forthcoming governorship election.

    Arije was former Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Mimiko on Due Process.

    The retirees told the APC Chairman that “never before in the state’s history has public workers gone this long without being paid let alone celebrate the Yuletide bleakfully”.

    They decried their members’ sufferings, saying they helped Mimiko to win in 2009.

    According to the labour leaders, Mimiko is the first governor that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) would endorse and support.

    They, however, declared that since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has ruined the state, they have decided to work with the APC by ensuring that the party wins.

    Kekemeke thanked the retirees for their visit and praised their doggedness in their struggle to continue to fight Labour’s cause even after retirement.

    He praised their boldness for supporting the APC and enjoined them to continue to bear the present suffering the PDP-led government has brought on citizens, until “the APC government will come to change our stories for good next year”.

  • FG probes EFCC, ICPC, Pensions over N1.3tr revenue

    FG probes EFCC, ICPC, Pensions over N1.3tr revenue

    The federal government has resolved to trace the whereabouts of the over N1.3trillion said to have been recovered from treasury looters by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Also to be investigated is the whereabouts of the N80billion and assets seized from corrupt public officers by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences and Commission (ICPC) and Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT).

    It has consequently raised three committees to find the money.

    The committees were constituted by the Attorney- General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), The Nation gathered yesterday.

    Specifically, the panels will find out what became of the   assets and cash recovered from the late Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, one time Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, and pension thieves.

    Well placed sources said the panels are expected to reconcile the records of the EFCC, ICPC and the Pension Task Force in arriving at their conclusions.

    According to one of the sources, the presidency opted for the committees to enable it have a “true picture of the recovery records of the anti-graft agencies.”

    He said the government was concerned that “politics is creeping into the whereabouts of the assets and cash got from looters.”

    “All the committees are multi-agencies, including the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Nigeria and anybody managing remittances from these anti-graft agencies.

    “The committees will also consider court judgments, assets seized abroad and cash and assets under Temporary Assets Forfeiture Clause.

    “The committees will interact with present and past heads of anti-graft agencies and Pension Task Force. The government is not after maligning anybody or group but it is out to streamline records and present the real situation to Nigerians.

    “These are more or less purely fact-finding committees to resolve all lingering issues on the status of the recovery by these agencies.”

    Responding to a question, the top source said: “For instance, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said it has so far recovered over N80bn looted funds.

    “The funds include N23b funds stashed in 40 banks across the country by looters. ICPC has also received over 4,497 petitions with 899 concluded, while 470 are still pending in court.

    “These committees will locate all these funds, how much has been utilised and for what purposes. This will require going through remittances into the Federation Account.”

    The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (OAGF) confirmed the setting up of the committees last night.

    The International Police Organisation (INTERPOL) recently issued a Red Alert on the former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, giving the relevant security agencies to arrest Maina in any part of the world.

    The Head of Media and Publicity of EFCC, Mr.Wilson Uwujaren, said Maina was wanted for his alleged role in the fraudulent biometric contracts through which he and former Head of Service, Steve Oronsaye and two others allegedly mismanaged over N2billion of pension funds.

    Maina was on July 21, 2015 charged alongside Oronsaye, Osarenkhoe Afe and Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited before a Federal High Court on a 24-count charge bordering on procurement fraud and obtaining by false pretence.

    While Oronsaye and two others were in court and pleaded not guilty to the charge, Maina is nowhere to be found.

    However, on July 21 when the court heard the bail applications of the accused persons, Maina through his counsel, Esther Uzoma told the court that he was not at large, claiming that the EFCC had never invited him.

    The setting up of the committees by the federal government is coming on the heels of the Senate’s declaration of  the immediate past Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde wanted over  the whereabouts  of the  N1 trillion which the agency recovered from treasury looters

    At its plenary session on Thursday, the Senate directed its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to issue a warrant of arrest on Lamorde to compel him to explain the whereabouts of the money in EFCC’s custody.

    One Dr. George Uboh had petitioned the Senate to probe the matter.

    Uboh, Chief Executive Officer of Panic Alert Security Systems (PASS), had alleged that EFCC under Lamorde short-changed the federal government in the remittance of funds and properties recovered from the late Alamieyeseigha and a former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun.

    The anti-graft agency, according to him “has descended into the abyss of corruption and financial crimes.”

    He added: “EFCC operates accounts in banks to warehouse recovered funds, which do not reflect in EFCC’s audited accounts. EFCC doctors and manipulates bank accounts to conceal diversion of funds.

    “EFCC releases recovered funds to unidentified persons and EFCC officials. EFCC moves funds from its recovery accounts to EFCC operations accounts from where it diverts same.

    “Over 95% of EFCC’s recoveries in foreign currencies, other than those from multinational companies, have been diverted.

    “EFCC trades with recovered funds through bank deposits and placements.

    “EFCC colludes with real estate companies in order to grossly undervalue seized assets before there are sold to their cronies.

    “EFCC has not accounted for offshore recoveries.

    “Over half of the assets seized from suspects are not reflected in EFCC exhibit records.”

    Uboh claimed that the amounts of money recovered by the EFCC from Alamieyeseigha and Tafa Balogun were at different times falsified by officials of the agency with a view to perpetrating fraud.

    Lamorde, a senior police officer, is yet to be arrested.

    He is currently attending the Senior Executive Course 38 at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies at Kuru, near Jos.

    When reporters approached him at the institution on Friday to respond to the Senate’s decision to have him arrested, the former EFCC boss said he would have to get a clearance from his bosses at the Police Headquarters to say anything on the issue.

    However, his lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, had earlier asked the Police authorities disregard the Senate threat to arrest Lamorde.

    He branded the Senate action as “legislative rascality”, and said the police should “resist the invitation to drag themselves into this illegal scheme.”

    Keyamo said he has already filed a suit at the Federal High Court seeking an interpretation of the powers of the Senate with respect to investigations.

    He said the Red Chamber refused to defend itself in court  following which the Committee set up to probe Lamorde was restrained from proceeding with its assignment pending the determination of the substantive suit.

    He said: “whilst there is no restriction on the powers of a court of law to issue a Warrant of Arrest against anybody who fails to honour its summons, the Senate’s own rules forbid it to do anything in respect of matters that are pending in a court of law.

    “The conducts of the Senate and the committee amount to legislative rascality as they seek to usurp the powers of the judiciary and to undermine its authority. We most respectfully urge the Nigeria Police Force to await the outcome of the matter pending in court before deciding one way or the other about the enforcement of the said Warrant of Arrest, if eventually issued.”