Pension fraud: The agony of elder-citizens and the need for systemic purging

The fact that Nigeria is an epicentre of corruption is a subject which is largely incontrovertible. The deep rot is known to have assumed systemic character as the normative disposition of public officers. The rot has now grown as a phenomenon finding expression across all facets making up the societal configurations of the Country. While the preponderance of corruption has become so elaborate that the discourse of the phenomenon appears to no longer catch Nigerians by surprise, the fact remains that the debilitating impacts on the human profile and institutional frameworks  in the Country have contributed to constituting forces of ravages against the working fabrics of the Nigerian society – an albatross that has brought sour narratives to the profile of cohabitation and living conditions in the Country.

The expression of the ills of corruption has indeed continued to pose  socio-economic and political strains institutionally, while the human angle gives expression of social and emotional disturbances. Among the categorisation of the records of impacts of the menace on the human profile is the subject of the plight of pensioners in the face of corruption. It is inarguable that the normative character which corruption has come to assume, has not spared the institution of pension scheme, though one would naturally ponder at the depth of vile of moving to the extent of an inhumane posture of such diabolic and despicable act of playing pranks with the entitlements of elder citizens who all their productive lives have been committed to service. Issues of  diversion of pension funds and non commitment of Government to its quota, have remained ill concepts entangling the processes of pension administration in the Country.

The depth of the scourge of feasting on  pension fund has continued to attract reactions as elder citizens suffer the gloom of their entitlements being subjected to glitches without rational explanation to justify the gaps. On Tuesday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said that it has 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,” 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.

A locus classicus among such fraudulent cases was the suit instituted in 2013 by the EFCC over an alleged N20billion on the Police Pension Scheme. It would be recalled that the EFCC had last year re-arraigned six persons accused of the N20 billion fraud in the Police Pension Scheme. In the petition, the EFCC had alleged that some serving police officers attached to the Police Pension Office reportedly connived to defraud both the government and others of the sum.

The accused were: Atiku Kigo, Ahmed Wada, Veronica Onyegbula, Sani Zira, Uzoma Attang, Christian Madubuke and Esai Dangabar (now deceased). Attang, a former chief accountant in the Police Pension Office, was on trial for theft and abuse of office. She was initially arraigned in 2013 with five others — Esai Dangabar, Atiku Abubakar Kigo, Uzoma Cyril Attang, Ahmed Inuwa Wada, Mrs. Veronica Ulonma Onyegbula, Sani Habila Zira, and Christian Madubuke – before Justice Baba. According to the EFCC’s claims, the accused persons used their offices to divert the said amount sourced from the Nigeria Police Pension funds in the account domiciled at First Bank of Nigeria Plc for personal use. As part of the charges, they committed the crime between January 2008 and June 2011. The court had earlier in 2013 granted the accused bail in the sum of N10 million with two sureties, one of whom must not be less than an officer on grade level 14.

Another locus classicus is the ongoing case of the Former Chairman of Nigeria Pension Reform Taskforce Team, (PRTFT), Abdulrasheed Maina, who has been accused of diverting about N100 billion from pension funds. Maina, who was earlier granted bail, reportedly absconded upon the bail and was declared wanted until he was discovered in Niger and repatriated back to the Country to continue his trials on the fraud.

The consideration of the chagrin of elder citizens who have spent their productive years serving the Country only to end up stranded at the begging instance before a system which is supposed be responsive to their entitlements, sparks much emotion. The emotional and psychological trauma which many are reduced to, over frustrations from getting their entitlements without glitches, have led to the colossal loses of untimely illness and departure of many elder citizens not quite long after their retirement. The feeling of distrust, betrayal, frustration, abandonment, cheating, and the chagrin of neglect, among others which cluster to destabilise their human framework of thoughts, constitute threats to senses of living. The impacts have over the years constituted a strong base of loss of motivation for workers, particularly civil servants in the Country. The argument has been why should they be committed to a system that doesn’t guarantee their security at old age after serving for years?

It has come to notice that while public office holders as former Governors among others, upon leaving office, enjoy juicy pension in millions among other alluring packages, civil servants who have served the Country for several years are denied their entitlements. The case of the life pension for Governors had recently attracted reactions over the argument that many of them upon leaving office still jostle for law making positions where they enjoy salaries and allowances in addition to pension. While pension for public office holders may not be condemned in an outright sense, it evokes reactions when such are duly paid when long serving servants of the State are deprived of their entitlements upon retirement.

The need for revisiting and overhauling the subsisting pension schemes in the Country has become sacrosanct. Such necessity demands a systemic overhauling that authentically foreclose the possibilities of fraudulent acts against pensioners’ fund. It is equally pertinent that the desideratum for such system should be such that embodies functional frameworks that reduces the bottlenecks that frustrate pensioners from accessing their entitlements without glitches. The need for the development is indisputable to have a balanced population with a healthy profile of elder citizens. The multiplier effects of having a depressed profile of citizens is a deficient oddity of a demographic character which is counterproductive to the quest of national development. The need for emergent approach to address the albatross is alarming for a change in narratives.