- Joe Aligbe (National Vice President, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria)
It is not a bad thing to borrow from the pension fund, but why we kick against it is that there are no safety nets; there is no guarantee that the government will pay back as and when due. However, in economics, it makes no sense to have idle funds. Funds such as the trillions of naira we have in pension savings should be invested. Whether the Federal Government is borrowing or not, the expectation is that it is following the rules.
There are guidelines that govern the utilisation of these pension funds. If the pension administrators ensure that these rules are followed before the release of such funds to government, then there are no problems; it is welcome. Why the (labour) unions will always kick against government borrowing these funds is that we do not trust government to deliver on its promises and we do not want what happened to savings made during the closed pension scheme to happen to the contributory pension schemeHowever, this borrowing is not justified because whoever comes to equity should come with clean hands. The government has not been fulfilling its obligation to the pension fund; you can find that out from the pension fund administrators.
That is why retirees, even in the contributory pension scheme, find it very difficult to get their pension’s as and when due when they retire. There is a delay because government has not paid what it should pay.
So, it is not justified for the same government to take from the workers, when it has not contributed its own quota. Going forward, the government should hands off the pension fund. It should allow portfolio managers to manage the funds the way they should in line with provisions of existing pension laws.
Government should be compelled to contribute/ remit its contribution to the fund as designed by the law setting up the fund. Government should be a law keeper and not a law breaker; that is the only way we can move
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