Elders Citizens’ Plight: Addressing bottlenecks in Nigeria’s Pension System

A peaceful protest staged by ex-servicemen of the Nigerian military on Monday in Kaduna over non-payment of their entitlements by the Federal Government is reminiscent of the defaulting parameters of the administration of pension, gratuity and other retirement entitlements in Nigeria.  The ex-servicemen on Monday stormed some strategic streets in Kaduna metropolis with placards conveying messages about their nightmare in recent years. It was reported that part of the demands of the aggrieved  demonstrators include an immediate payment of 24 months minimum wage increment; security debarment allowance; a refund of deductions from medically discharged retired servicemen; an automatic Armed Forces slot for qualified children of retired servicemen among others.

The narratives of corruption and administrative inefficiencies which have been the bedrock for bureaucratic deformities laying the lane of delay and undue bottlenecks are clogs of unsavoury phenomena which over time have kept the system of pension administration in the Country as an eyesore to pensioners, many of whom assessing their entitlements have become a nightmare.

The system of pension in Nigerian like many other subjects is coloured with administrative deficiencies. The discourse over the subject is such that carries emotional reservations, when critical concerns are put to bear on the plight of aged workers deprived of their entitlements. It is known that the clogging of bottlenecks borne by administrative deficiencies have made the difficulties of accessibility to pension and gratuity of retired civil servants a hoarse. The hoaxing of pensioners by crafts of corruption have left many on the bed of languishing after years of service.

Recently, the rounds of fraud and mismanagement of pension fund, borne by inclinations of corruption, have been on the frontal subjects of discourse in the administration of the subject. It is saddening the rots of the cultural mischief of corruption have become so endemic – not sparing the system of pension. It would only evoke emotions  how administrators have become so despicable, villain and inconsiderate to such extent of feasting on entitlements of pensioners who all their productive lives have served. Over the years, the issues of high profile corruption of laundering of pension funds have been making rounds. Bringing the culprits to justice has strongly been clouded with bottlenecks, as the elongated character of trials in the Country has continued to leave numbers of cases inconclusive. On Tuesday, October 5, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed that it had recently probed pension frauds to the tune of no less than N157 billion. The Director of Operations, EFCC, Adulkarim Chukkol who made the disclosure at a two-day sensitisation programme on the theme: “Eradication of Pension Fraud in Nigeria,” had said  many more of the cases will be unraveled as the Commission is ever ready to bring those who embezzle pension funds to justice. However, it is pathetic that such suits have neither translated into the recuperation of the funds, nor have many of the legal suits brought the suspects to book as many of the cases remained shrouded with the bottlenecks of the processes of the Country’s judicial system, frustrating speedy trials to bring the cases to conclusive end.

The gross inadequacies which have entangled the administration of pension and retirement entitlements in the Country, is a long seated trouble demanding structural metamorphosis to address the clusters of strains. It is inarguable that the socio-economic impacts have only left unsavoury reflections with broad penetration on national configurations. It is known that leaving elder citizens who have served the Country with their active days of strength to agony of depravity of their entitlements is a trench towards feelings of frustration, cheat, neglect and dishonesty. The end result is displacement of loyalty, and to this end distrust. It would not therefore be far fetched to state that such conduct could be strongly held in point among the factors spurring the growing degree of disconnection of more citizens from the Government. It is perceivable that while more elder citizens are losing their loyalty from the Government, more younger citizens who have come to the understanding of the abysmal system have become very sceptical of the Government with the psyche of stereotype perception which makes believing on any presentation by the Government a hard possibility.

The configurations of the socio-economic and political fabrics of the Country is threatened as a polity by more forces of citizen/government disconnection with clusters of metabiotic factors. It only behooves the Government to rise above the prevailing mediocrity to ameliorate the forces of discomfitting patterns of administration which have left distrust as the resounding orientation of more citizens. Checking towards structural reforms to eliminate the claws of deformities in the pension administration system in the Country is one pressing adjustment the Government needs to look into with the force of pragmatism.