NICON Insurance Pensioners Decry Exclusion From Revised Pension Adjustments

NICON Insurance pensioners under the auspices of the Association of Former Employees of NICON Insurance (AFENI) pensioners were unhappy over alleged systematic exclusion of its members from the revised implementation of the Consequential Pension Adjustment (CPA), the N32,000 wage award approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other statutory pension entitlements.

This exclusion, which they said executed by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), has been described as a gross act of injustice and a violation of the principles of equity and national inclusion.
Following the circular issued by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) on 8th July 2024 (SWC/S/04/S.557/T/171), PTAD re-implemented the 2019 CPA for pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme(DBS), using the Grade Level model rather than the previously adopted Pay Band structure.

While this realignment led to pension increases of 20 per cent and 28 per cent for many retirees, they said, pensioners from defunct agencies—notably NICON Insurance—were entirely left out of this reassessment, under the claim that they do not fall within the listed salary structures of eligible agencies.
Reacting on this development, Communications officer for the group, Emmanuel Omadivi said:

“According to them, these agencies of government,Nicon Insurance and the other so-called defunct Parastatals were receiving super salary structures when in operation. Nicon Pensioners have argued that the same government that sold these Parastatals during the privatization exercise also thought it fit to payroll them for pension, pointing out that there’s nowhere in the Nigerian constitution where Pensioners are discriminated against that will warrant this apartheid and illegal form of selective treatment.”

In announcing the wage award, the pensioners of Nicon Insurance noted that the President didn’t indicate the exclusion of any agency. They further submitted that, when Nicon Insurance was performing creditably well,it had a registered in-house Pension Scheme whose kitty at the time of privatisation was worth N2.3billion but which money was taken away by the core investor.

They believe that, if that money had been invested,it would have been serving the pension needs of staff of the so-called defunct Parastatals.

The pensioners see the current action of misguided government super civil servants as a jealous and cruel decision, asserting that, they served their country under full Federal Government’s Agency employment in a now-defunct but once-vital institution that was a major subscriber to federal government shares, alongside such entities as NAL, Daily Times, the then NICON Hilton, now Transcorp Hilton and a host of others.

The association called on the federal government, the National Assembly, and the National Human Rights Commission to immediately investigate the circumstances surrounding PTAD’s implementation, reinstate entitlements for all affected pensioners of NICON Insurance and uphold the fundamental right to equitable treatment in retirement, regardless of agency status.

“This isn’t just a fight for financial justice. It is a fight to protect the dignity of those who toiled to build the institution that once served this nation in full capacity,” a member of the pensioners’ association, Chijioke Nwafor said.

Reacting to the developments, spokesperson for PTAD, Mr. Gbenga Ajayi said, as a responsible organisation, the directorate will continue to abide by the directives of government in its move to sanitise the pension system, especially, under the Defined Benefits Scheme(DBS) in the country.

To this end, he said, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission(NSIWC)
had earlier issued a circular mandating the directorate to re-implement the 2019 CPA for pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme(DBS), using the Grade Level model rather than the previously adopted Pay Band structure.

Stating that, the directorate has since commenced payment for those covered under the circular arrangement, he noted that, NICON and some other agencies do not fall under the category of those to benefit from the scheme because of their higher salary structures while still in active service.