Police pensions: What has become of the bill passed by the National Assembly?
By Okechukwu Nwanguma
The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has taken note of reports that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed an increase in the monthly pensions of retired Nigeria Police officers as part of efforts by the Federal Government and the National Pension Commission (PenCom) to address longstanding grievances over police pensions.
Rather than immediately celebrating this announcement, RULAAC believes that it raises fundamental questions that the Presidency and PenCom should answer.
The National Assembly passed legislation providing for the exit of the Nigeria Police Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and the establishment of a Police Pension Board. The bill was transmitted to President Tinubu for assent.
Yet months later, retired police officers are still protesting and demanding presidential assent to the bill.
What, therefore, has become of the bill?
Has the President declined to assent to it? Is it still under consideration? Or has the Executive decided, without formally communicating its position on the legislation, to pursue a different solution designed by PenCom?
These questions become particularly important because retired police officers—the people most directly affected—have publicly rejected proposals to retain the Police under the CPS with enhanced benefits and have continued to demand complete exit from the scheme.
RULAAC therefore asks whether recognised organisations representing retired police officers were meaningfully consulted in arriving at the latest decision.
Were they invited to participate in discussions with the Presidency and PenCom? Were their objections to continued membership of the CPS considered? What alternatives were presented to them, and what was their response?
Pension reform should not merely be something done for retired police officers. Those whose livelihoods and dignity in retirement are directly affected should have a meaningful voice in determining the system under which their pensions will be administered.
There is also a broader question of trust, transparency and accountability in pension administration.
Over the years, Nigeria’s pension sector has faced public concerns and allegations relating to mismanagement, diversion of pension resources, delayed payments, administrative failures and corruption. Such concerns make transparency particularly important whenever government proposes a new arrangement involving the management of the retirement savings and benefits of thousands of serving and retired police officers.
RULAAC is not suggesting that unproven allegations should be treated as established facts. But neither should legitimate concerns about the governance and management of pension resources be ignored.
The Federal Government and PenCom should therefore disclose clearly how the proposed enhanced police pension arrangement will work; who will manage the funds; what safeguards will prevent mismanagement or abuse; what independent auditing and oversight mechanisms will apply; and how retirees will be able to challenge irregularities or failures in the administration of their benefits.
There is an additional constitutional and institutional question.
The National Assembly has exercised its legislative authority and passed a bill addressing this very issue. The Executive is constitutionally entitled to assent to or withhold assent from legislation presented to the President. But leaving the legislation unresolved in the public domain while pursuing an apparently different administrative solution creates uncertainty about government policy and undermines confidence in the process.
RULAAC therefore calls on the Presidency to state clearly:
1. the present status of the Nigeria Police Force Pension Board Bill transmitted to the President;
2. whether the President intends to assent to or withhold assent from the bill;
3. whether the newly announced pension increase is intended as an alternative to removing the Police from the CPS;
4. which organisations representing serving and retired police officers were consulted before this alternative was developed;
5. what concerns or proposals those representatives presented and how government responded to them;
6. the financial and actuarial basis of the proposed arrangement;
7. the safeguards for transparency, independent auditing and accountability in the management of police pension funds; and
8. what mechanisms will protect serving and retired officers against corruption, mismanagement, arbitrary deductions, delayed payments and other administrative failures.
Police officers deserve dignity in retirement. But dignity cannot be reduced simply to announcing an increase in monthly pension payments.
It also requires certainty, participation, transparency and accountability.
If the Executive believes that keeping the Police within the Contributory Pension Scheme while substantially improving their benefits is superior to the arrangement approved by the National Assembly, it should make that case publicly and transparently.
And it should make that case to the retired officers themselves.
The people whose pensions are at stake should not learn from newspaper reports that an alternative has effectively been designed for them while the legislation they have spent years campaigning for remains awaiting presidential action.
RULAAC therefore urges the Presidency, PenCom, the Nigeria Police Force, the National Assembly and representatives of retired police officers to engage openly and urgently and bring clarity to this matter.
The issue is no longer simply how much retired police officers will receive every month.
It is also who decides, who manages the money, who exercises oversight, what has become of the legislation passed by Parliament, and whether the people whose future is being decided were actually heard.
Okechukwu Nwanguma is the Executive Director of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC)
