The Labour Movement in Nigeria has said it will mobilise its members nationwide to resist the attempt by state governors to borrow N17 trillion from pension fund, stressing that the governors cannot be allowed to borrow from the fund apparently because they lack frugality in management of funds.
Speaking at the 47th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday, President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, insisted that the governors had no authority over the funds.
The Nigerian Governors’ Forum had last week endorsed the proposal of the Chairman of the National Economic Council Ad hoc Committee, Nasir El-Rufai, to borrow N17trn from the pension fund for infrastructural development.
But Wabba said pension is not for borrowing; rather, pension money is the retirement savings of workers, it cannot be borrowed.
Read Also: Senate seeks probe of $9bn annual revenue loss to illegal mining
“It’s like money in your savings account that nobody can borrow. You must go through the banks and in this case, you must go through the PFAs and their guidelines; even the guidelines they want to play down, but to the glory of God, the board of PenCom has been constituted,” Wabba said.
“I stand here to represent all of you (workers); we are not going to agree; less than five per cent of the states are keying into the contributory pension scheme, yet they want to borrow the money. The bulk of the money is from the Federal Government workers and private sector workers; so, how do you want to borrow from where you have not sown?” he said.
The NLC leader lamented that over 18 state governments were delaying the implementation of the new national minimum wage, noting that it was unheard of that the same governments would want to borrow the workers’ pensions.
“The money belongs to workers; we contribute that money so that when we retire, we can have something for retirement, so they have no say whatsoever; both the principal and the capital belong to us.
“The money belongs to workers; we contribute that money so that when we retire, we can have something for retirement, so they have no say whatsoever; both the principal and the capital belong to us,” he said.
Speaking on the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit also known as PMS, Wabba noted that the price should not be determined by the market forces whose sole aim was targeted at making profits even at the detriment of the masses.
“Anything you leave to market forces, citizens will suffer because the primary focus of governance is actually to defend the interest and welfare of our workers and even the citizens and therefore when you leave it to market forces, it is then about profit,” he added.
President of the National and Medical Health Workers Union of Nigeria, Biobelemoye Josiah, denounced the alleged involvement of the Federal Government to scuttle strike action through the use some non-governmental organizations, adding that the workers have the constitutional rights to embark on industrial action to press home their demands.
