NLC Tackles PenCom Over Failure To Constitute Governing Board

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has criticised the National Pension Commission (PenCom) for its response to calls for the immediate constitution and inauguration of the boards of key labour market institutions.

In a statement signed by NLC president, Comrade Joe Ajaero, the labour centre described PenCom’s recent press release as polemics of half-truths, furtive denials, and lame excuses. It accused PenCom management of deflecting responsibility while the sector suffers from weak oversight.

Ajaero noted that PenCom dismissed NLC’s concerns as unfounded but simultaneously blamed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the prolonged failure to constitute the board.

He demanded that PenCom’s defence lacked clarity and failed to provide evidence of concrete steps taken by the federal government to resolve the matter.

Ajaero stressed that the absence of a governing board for more than five years undermines transparency and accountability in pension fund management.

He added that the board’s non-constitution has created a “dysfunctional governance architecture” and eroded oversight of workers’ funds.

The NLC reiterated its pivotal role in shaping Nigeria’s contributory pension scheme and warned that the lack of working-class representation risks repeating the failures of the old defined benefit system.

“Having conceded without humility that the government has gravely erred by administering workers’ funds without working class oversight, PenCom should go beyond excuses and persuade the federal government to do the needful,” Ajaero said.

The labour leader affirmed that the NLC would continue to hold the government accountable for properly managing workers’ pensions, warning that silence in the face of such governance lapses is too dangerous and costly.

The statement reads, “In response to the sustained pressure by the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for the Federal Government to constitute and inaugurate the boards of labour market institutions particularly the Pension Commission (Pencom) and the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), the management of Pencom released a press statement which could be at best be described as polemics of half-truths, furtive denials and lame excuses.

Perhaps what Pencom failed to tell us is the specific steps taken by the Federal Government to address the issue of non-constitutionality and the inauguration of the Pencom governing board for more than five years. This aloofness goes to the heart of the lack of transparency in the management of pension funds. ”

“At the root of the crisis of transparency in the management of pension funds in Nigeria is a dysfunctional governance architecture stemming from the non-constitution of the pension 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.

All we need is a 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. “What is so difficult in constituting the board of Pencom?”