RE: Ill-advised gambit to exit police from Contributory Pension Scheme
By Oduche Azih
God forbid bad thing!
Contributory means that the money belongs to the workers + including the statutorily mandated contribution by the employer.
Every month, not later or whenever the finance administrations want. The Contributory Pension Scheme ties the hands of the employer i.e. government and its appointed agents. Here, the Police administration.
We know the sad story of the predators appointed by past governments to oversee and interfere with the administration of Police Pensions and others. Their crimes have been of public knowledge such that one would have expected our many IGPs and their teams to have arrested the bigwig culprits out of enlightened self-interest. But what do we have? These individuals continue to swagger all over the place guarded by scores of Police escorts, their very victims. These are people who are supposed to be in jail. The evidence is typically and deliberately all muddled up such that even when charged, the culprits get off scot-free or at best with a slap on the wrist.
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It is an easy guess to surmise that the IGPs and the Minister of Police Affairs, Permanent Secretaries and all have been involved in these many scams. Meanwhile the FG, especially under Buhari, constantly raided/raids the coffers of the Pension Funds nominally outside its reach going by the Laws establishing them. Revealing these infractions was one of the “crimes” of David Hundeyin. Note that when there are no consequences, copycats are bound to surface. Right now, it has been mentioned that the Tinubu administration is following the well-established Buhari path regarding the Pension Funds as it seeks to clean out any new funds that come into the coffers. You may want to ask this: Do we have a National Assembly? Unfortunately, we don’t.
Now they want the Police to exit the Contributory Pensions Scheme? “They” of course mean the top echelons and management of the Police. That’s one huge multi-billion Naira cover-up loading. Who accounts for all the contributions and employer matching contributions already collected over the years, and probably looted, which theft obviously led to this crazy gambit? Let bygone be bygones?
Since the Officers and Men/Women of the Nigeria Police do not belong to the Labour Unions, was their opinions sought before this kite was flown? How on earth would they gladly go back to an era where their pensions would be dependent on whether the scarce goodwill of the government of the day or if it was liquid or not? I cannot see them opting for clear uncertainty from a certain platform.
I am still shaking my head in utter disbelief.
- Engr. Oduche Azih wrote in from Isolo, Lagos State
