By Victor Ahiuma-Young
There seems to be no end in sight to the face-off between the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the National Pension Commission, PenCom, over the non-constitution of the Commission’s board.
Read Also:Eq. Guinea’s Baltasar Engonga gets 8yr-jail term after sex tape scandal, embezzlement
The NLC has accused the management of PenCom of engaging in “polemics of half-truths, furtive denials and lame excuses” in a bid to shield the Federal Government from responsibility for the prolonged failure to inaugurate the governing board.
The NLC, in a strongly worded statement, said PenCom’s reaction to its consistent pressure on the Federal Government to inaugurate the boards of critical labour market institutions—particularly PenCom and the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF)—was “a little too dramatic”.
“In one breath, the management of PenCom dismissed NLC’s demands as unfounded. In another breath, it shifted the blame for the non-constitution of the PenCom board to the doorstep of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. And yet, in another breath, it made excuses for the government, claiming that steps have been taken to address the issue,” the NLC said.
The labour movement noted that what PenCom failed to disclose were the “specific steps” taken by government in the past five years to resolve the governance vacuum.
“This aloofness,” the Congress declared, “goes to the heart of the lack of transparency in the management of pension funds. At the root of this crisis of transparency is a dysfunctional governance architecture stemming from the non-constitution of the PenCom governing board. If the management of PenCom wants the public to ignore this grave misnomer, the leadership of the NLC will not—regardless of overflowing patronage.”
Reiterating its historic role in shaping Nigeria’s pension system, the NLC stressed that it did not need lectures on the matter.
“We are fully aware of our strident role in birthing and shaping the current pension system in Nigeria. We do not need a tutorial on this.
“What we need is a firm commitment from the Federal Government that the labours of Nigerian workers through trade unions to develop a virile contributory pension scheme are not derailed by the demons of poor accountability and oversight that destroyed the old defined benefit scheme,” the statement added.
The Congress posed a direct question: “What is so difficult in constituting the board of PenCom?”
According to the NLC, PenCom’s admission that government erred by administering workers’ funds without representation was itself proof of failure.
“Having conceded without humility that the government has gravely erred by administering workers’ funds without working-class oversight through representation in the PenCom governing board, the management of PenCom should go beyond polemics and excuses.
“It should invest its energy in persuading the Federal Government to do the needful—constitute the governing board of the Pension Commission without further delay,” the Congress charged.
The NLC maintained that it would never abandon its duty to hold government accountable on issues of public trust and workers’ welfare.
“It is simply too dangerous and gravely costly to be silent when a democratic government obstructs representative governance. A stitch in time saves nine,” the statement concluded.
Vanguard News
The post Pension Board crisis: NLC accuses PenCom of shielding FG appeared first on Vanguard News.