Nigerians must say no to government’s intent to borrow from Pension Fund

femi orebe
May 19, 2024

I know government was targeting pension funds when it moved against Pencom. Instead of increasing the pension of retired workers in these difficult times,  the best the government can do is  deep its hands in the purse of poor pensioners. Soon and very soon, there will not be enough money to fund the pension scheme and pensioners will be back to square one” – Esther Bolade on Facebook.

Only this past week, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu acted the statesman, once again, when he stopped the commencement of the harebrained cybersecurity levy which the National Security Adviser, not the Central Bank of Nigeria as was initially wrongly believed, was eagerly trying to inflict on all Nigerians, even those now living on palliatives.

But here we are again, this week, with another of their endless schemes targeted at  poor Nigerians.

Wale Edun, the Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, at the end of last week’s meeting of the Federal Executive meeting on Tuesday, 14 May, announced to Villa correspondents, “a move by the Federal Government to rev up economic growth by unlocking N20 trillion from the nation’s pension funds and other funds to finance critical infrastructure projects across the country”.

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These are like the same sweet words with which President Muhammadu Buhari sent us all into slumber, amassed tonnes of  loans from China, and built a Nigerian railway from Kano all the way to Marafi in Niger Republic so that, in his words, “the people of Niger Republic will enjoy affordable transportation”, even if today Nigeria alone is encumbered with the debt.

As should be expected,  Nigerians are already talking, warning government not to dare touch that fund; that sole remaining hope of millions of Nigerians who have nowhere else to turn in an era of a rampaging cost of living palaver.

The following intervention accurately, even if not completely, sums up the umbrage of Nigerians at the mere suggestion:

“My attention has been drawn to a disturbing disclosure by the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, as he addressed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, 14 May.

There is, according to the Minister, a move by the Federal Government to rev up economic growth by unlocking N20 trillion from the nation’s pension funds and other funds to finance critical infrastructure projects across the country. The Minister has indicated that although “the initiative is expected to attract foreign investment interest over time”, domestic savings are his ‘immediate focus’ for now.

He provided no useful details, such as the percentage of the funds to be mopped up from the Pension Funds, for example. Even at that, this move must be halted immediately!  It is a misguided initiative that could lead to disastrous consequences on the lives of Nigeria’s hardworking men and women who toiled and saved and who now survive on their pensions having retired from service.

It is another attempt to perpetrate illegality by the Federal Government. The government must be cautioned to act strictly within the provisions of the Pension Reform Act of 2014 (PRA 2014), along with the revised Regulation on Investment of Pension Assets issued by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).

In particular, the Federal Government must not act contrary to the provisions of the extant Regulation on  investment limits to wit: Pension Funds can invest no more than 5% of total pension funds’ assets in infrastructure investments. I note that as of December 2023, total pension funds assets were approximately N18 Trillion, of which 75% of these  are investments in FGN Securities.

There is NO free Pension Funds that is more than 5% of the total value of the nation’s pension fund for Mr. Edun to fiddle with. 

There are no easy ways for Mr. Edun to address the challenges of funding infrastructure development in Nigeria. He can’t cut corners. He must introduce the necessary reforms to restore investor confidence in the Nigerian economy and to leverage private resources, skills, and technology”.

Although the above quote almost says it all, there are many reasons Nigerians must tell the Tinubu government to simply perish the mere thought of tampering with the fund.

For one thing, the minister did not come clean with Nigerians on the real reason for this proposed foray into a fund which for the sanity, if not the very life, of millions of Nigerian workers, active and retired, must be strictly protected from the government. It appears to be the same reason several officials of this administration are coming up with all manner of taxes and levies on the citizenry.

However, what he failed to tell Nigerians, both the IMF and the Bank of America have since done when IMF, in a release corroborated by the latter, released the following statement:

“Nigeria’s reintroduction of  fuel subsidy is expected to guzzle almost half of its projected oil revenue this year.

The implicit subsidy will cost Africa’s largest crude producer an estimated 8.43 trillion naira ($5.9 billion) of its projected 17.7 trillion naira of oil revenue for 2024″.

The above is why Mr Edun wants to borrow from a fund that must always be kept far from  government because the history of the unreliability of successive Nigerian federal government is unmatched.

Wrote Jide Oluwajuyitan only this past week in his column in The Nation:”But in truth, no one can blame incredulous Nigerians. They have in the past been serially betrayed by false prophets. Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa adored for his simplicity and golden voice betrayed promise of nationhood of “Our dear native land where tribe and tongue may differ but in brotherhood we stand with our flag serving as a symbol that truth and justice reign”. Aguiyi Ironsi was a master of mischief and intrigue. Gowon thought he was fighting a war to keep Nigeria one. Murtala Mohammed and Obasanjo destroyed the foundation of society – the academia and bureaucracy.  Babangida laid the foundation for our current socio-economic travails by opening our country to the labour of other nations.  Abacha, besides stealing the country blind waged a five-year war against us. Obasanjo, in spite of his “I only listen to God and not advisers” turned out to be obsessed by term elongation. Buhari, a prophet worshipped by some unquestioning 12 million ‘talakawas’ from the north left Nigeria worse than he met it because of his cronyism and provincialism.The paradox however is that despite serial betrayal, our survival as an organised society depends on politician’s versatility, brinksmanship and skilful exploitation of man’s infirmities. Who else can reconcile private affluence with public squalor or give ‘hope which rises eternal in the human breast’ but the politician”.

If Oluwajuyitan wrote that of past governments, it is a truism that government is a continuum and there’s no reason to believe that with regard to reliability, Tinubu’s government will be any different from its forebears.

Without a doubt what PBAT is presently dealing with is largely the consequences of President Muhammadu Buhari’s profligate government, but unfortunately, the Tinubu government itself has demonstrated only a little  difference. Otherwise, how come it thought nothing of wasting about N40B buying exotic cars for a people already being extravagantly overpaid for a job that should ideally have been part- time, and in a single chamber?

Thank God a change to a parliamentary system is under serious consideration. For one thing, that will not have within it persons who are under serious investigation by anti- corruption agencies especially for fiddling with their state’s finances.

Still intent on sending us to sleep with sweet  words, Wale Edun intoned, “the Tinubu government has

“unveiled a strategic plan to harness the N20 trillion pension fund and other locally available resources for infrastructure development in Nigeria”. As shown above, however, Nigerian history, ancient and modern, has taught us that  these are nothing but mere words.

We must, therefore, all in one voice, rise and stand ramrod against government tampering, in any manner or shape, with what remains the last hope of millions of Nigerians.

It is,  therefore, apposite to repeat that the minister must brace up and “introduce the necessary reforms to restore investor confidence in the Nigerian economy”, rather than eye a pension fund which should be treated as sacred for the well- being of the millions whose entire livelihood depend upon its invulnerability.

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