Dr Chioma Ejikeme, was recently reappointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to serve for a second term as the Executive Secretary of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD). Last week while meeting with the Federal Universities Pensioners Association who came to congratulate her, she seized the opportunity to send reassuring message to all pensioners under PTAD, CHRISTIAN APPOLOS presents excerpts…
Led by their National President and General Secretary, Chief Edwin Enyokwa and Dr. Julius Adegbite, respectively, members of the Federal Universities Pensioners Association (FUPA), who happened to be the first pensioners’ union to pay a courtesy visit to the newly reappointed Executive Secretary of PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, congratulated her on the reappointment and eulogised President Bola Tinubu, for “answering our prayers of keeping her to sustain the tempo of the good work of DBS pension management and administration in the country.”
FUPA General Secretary, Dr. Adegbite, then presented the challenges of their members, which he said was the case with many Defined Benefits Scheme pensioners’ groups across sectors and unions. According to him, chief among the issues FUPA wants the ES to provide answers to are: PTAD backend computation issue, I Am Alive verification related problems, pension consequential adjustment and increment issues, pension harmonisation, and the perceived favoritism by PTAD to Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) against Federal Parastatals and Private Sector Pensioners Association of Nigeria (FEPPPAN).
In her reaction, Dr. Ejikeme, said; “One thing I want all DBS pensioners to know is that PTAD is their friend. We are here for you, not against the pensioners. I want pensioners to understand this because of the way they abuse us sometimes. If only they knew what we go through just to serve them. We are here for the pensioners but we have to follow extant rules, regulations and policies, we cannot go outside them or do otherwise. Government has put us here to make sure that pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme are well taken care of, that is our mandate.”
The PTAD boss went on to say; “What I’m telling pensioners is that my second tenure is about consolidation. When I’m talking about consolidation, it is dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s because as far as I’m concerned, in the last four years, the heavy lifting has been done. And I say it with all sense of humility and confidence.
“What we need now is consolidation, the finetuning and then begin to look solely on how to improve the welfare of the pensioners. For now, there are still complaints, so we still have not totally solved all the problems of pensioners under PTAD. Substantially the problems are being solved but not completely. So we take responsibility for that, and we’re going to work towards doing all that needs to be done God willing.”
On the complaints about the backend computation, the ES said; “The backend computation has become quite controversial but I want to take you through a kind of historical perspective, because it will also address some of the other issues some pensioners are coming up with about 25%. 35% increments awarded, gratuities not paid and monetization arrears.”
She added ; “I came into PTAD at the point in time when parastatals pensioners were being verified. In fact that was the first job I carried out as the Executive Secretary of PTAD in 2019. I concluded the verification of parastatal pensioners. Before that time, from 2013 they had done the police, customs, immigration, prisons, and civil service pensioners..
“Now, prior to all of that, PTAD was using what we call the legacy payroll. That is the payroll that was inherited at inception. What was the idea behind verification? The idea was first of all, for PTAD to know who really are its eligible pensioners. When we find out who they are, what are their career documents, so that we can create a database of these people.
“Because prior to this time, verifications had been done just for payments. There was no database of pensioners created. But the verification exercise that PTAD started was to create a credible database of all eligible pensioners under the Defined Benefits Scheme, managed by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate.
“So what PTAD did was to go to the field to collect all this information. It was a very rigorous exercise and I will continue to commend the first Executive Secretary of PTAD and the staff at the inception, for the novel methods that they put in place to make sure that pensioners were verified in a comfortable atmosphere, devoid of all the embarrassment that pensioners used to face in the past. I am a PTAD pensioner and I knew about embarrassment because I retired in 2004. So I have an idea as to what pensioners have gone through prior to the establishment of PTAD.”
She further said; “Being able to analyze the information collected from the field at the same time that the back to back verification was taking place was literally an impossible task. So all the information collected from the field were subsequently analyzed: all career documents looked at and computed to make sure that every pensioner was getting their rightful pension.
“The way pensioners look at it is; they cut our pension, they cut our pension. And they make it sound like PTAD is looking for people to cut their pension. But they also forget that a higher percentage of the pensioners as a result of this verification validation and computation, who were underpaid are now earning a lot more; earning their correct and rightful pension.”
Ejikeme also said; “After the verification for parastatal pensioners, we systematically began to validate the verification. First of all, we removed people who did not show up for verification and were still on the payroll, they have to make room for us to add those who were not on payroll but had been verified. Because we are not supposed to have people who have not been verified on the payroll except for diaspora pensioners yet to be verified.
“We now moved on to pensioners from the defunct and privatized agencies, who based on the terms of their engagement, were entitled to one off payments. We did their one off payment and got them off the way, eg; pensioners from ALSCON and NAHCO. Then we continued with pensioners who were not on payroll but are entitled to pension and have been verified. We started sector by sector.
“Remember that what we were still operating with was the legacy payroll. We had not implemented the results of the verification we carried out on the field. We had not checked to make sure that the salary structure for any pensioner, the grade level and step, and the monthly pension they are paid is correct. Again recall that before PTAD, all these things were being manually done. And we’re all human beings prone to mistakes and prone to all kinds of errors. PTAD had at inception had introduced the use of technology to do these things. That is not to say that it is now 100% error free.
“So the backend computation now became necessary because we now have to go through everybody who has been verified to make sure…because some people may have at the point of writing on their verification slip; write level 10, step 9, whereas they supposed to write level 9 step 10, and their career document will be saying something else.
“PTAD had to go through these things one by one, to make sure that what was collected on the field corresponds with what is on your career document with the appropriate salary structure. So that immediately we pulled up your records from the database following the computation, the amount of money you’re supposed to be paid will come up. If it comes out negative that means adjustment because the money you get may be lower than what you’re supposed to get or you’re getting more than you’re supposed to get. But if it’s positive, then no adjustment.
“Now I am not saying that what PTAD has done is 100% foolproof, but what I keep saying is for each particular person to check and if you discover there is a problem you let us know. That is why the notification letters are so important. We will send a copy to the affected pensioner and a photocopy to the pensioner Union the person belongs. We will do that.
“The same for the I Am Alive, because right now we’re about to drop people from the I Am Alive. The first thing I asked as I resumed was if the list of pensioners scheduled to be dropped from I Am Alive have been sent to the pensioners unions because we are going to hold them responsible for any of their members dropped.
“I told them at the stakeholders’ engagements: we will hold you responsible for anybody dropped because before we drop anybody, we are going to send the list to you of pensioners who did not carry out the I am Alive. The pension unions have to look at that list of people who didn’t do the I Am Alive and see how they can let those people know that theyy have to carry out this particular exercise to continue to be on the payroll.
“What I’m saying is that I can’t tell you there might not be any error with the backend computation. If you find out that there is a likely problem with your own, though I can assure you there will be very few problems, if any, let us know. Pension is personal, even if it’s one person that has an issue, it’s a big problem.
“So I appeal to all pensioners to see the issues from this perspective, because we will address the issues as they come. Our determination is to make sure that no pensioner is overpaid or underpaid by one kobo. That if you’re entitled to 10 Naira, PTAD pays you that 10 Naira and nothing gets missing from it. At the same time, we will make sure also that no pensioner takes undue advantage.
“If you are entitled to 20 Naira, that is what you get and not 50 Naira. I know why I’m saying this. We had instances of people who were drivers who retired in 2007. And some of them their pension was 100,000. I retired in 2004. I know how much my salary was as a doctor. What was a driver’s salary when he was in service to be earning pension of this amount? At that time, pension was being manually computed. Pension was not managed dispassionately. And that is why the backend computation was necessary.
Furthermore on I Am Alive Problems, she said; “Loss of verification slips is the least of our problems with I Am Alive, because we have I Am Alive call centre contact numbers. The minute you send your complaint to us or even send me via WhatsApp yyour verification slip will be sent to you. There are lines we have dedicated for solving this kind of problem with I Am Alive. If you give them your pension details, the bank you receive your pension from and your account number they will pull out your verification slip immediately. It doesn’t take time.”
On NOKs. she said; “I want to set up a project for NOKs (Next of Kins). We have problems with next of kin of deceased pensioners. So I’m going to set up a project that will cut across all the departments of the Directorate. All they will do is to look into the next of kin of deceased pensioners. We will pull them out to make sure that they all get the entitlements of their deceased relative.
“In the same vein, all these other peculiar situations that have to do with certain sectors, monetization arrears of the university sector, the issue of gratuity, when the pension increment of 2010 was supposed to start for you, 33% effective date and all of that, we will now begin to look at all those. I want the pensioners to understand the systemic way in which we have been addressing these issues. Because if you don’t understand it with whatever peculiar problem you have, you think PTAD is doing nothing, but we’re trying to ease out these problems one by one.”
“I know that Nigeria Reinsurance is one of the defunct agencies with similar problem. So we have some other sectors who have the same issues we are working on, in addition to new sectors we’re recently acquiring. We have the Bank of Agriculture that we have acquired. We have the Federal Mortgage Bank that we have not started their verification yet. So we still have to look into all those issues and resolve them. We plead with Pensioners to be a bit patient with us, we will begin to fine tune these things one by one.
“I advise the Directors and staff of PTAD to please attend to pensioners and pick all calls from them. I pick all calls and respond to all WhatsApp messages because of pensioners. Because by the time we solve most of their problems, no pensioner will be calling on same issues again.”
On the issue of Consequential adjustment, the Executive Secretary said; “It was a novel idea at the time because it had never happened in the history of pension increments in Nigeria. We had always had a one percentage increment cutting across everybody, which if we were to begin to look at it in terms of fairness and equity, it wasn’t equitable, because like I would always say, to give that 33% increment to somebody whose pension is 1 million naira and you also give that 33% increment to somebody who’s pension is 10,000 Naira. It is the 10,000 Naira person that needs that increments more than the 1 million.
“So we are pushing for harmonization because harmonization would mean that if you retired on grade level 13 step 9 regardless of when you retired so long as you retired on the same salary structure that, your pension will be the same”
Harmonisation, PTAD ES said; “In all honesty the memo for approval of harmonisation was sent to the office of the SGF by the National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission towards the tail end of the last administration when it was literally winding down. People are saying I said wait for the new administration to settle, “when are they going to settle”? But we all know the myriad of problems that this government has, and they’re trying to address each and every one of them. I have made a list of the things that I will discuss with the Honorable Minister, and harmonization is number one.
“So I would continue to plead for patience because I am definite and sure that with the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President, that this administration is very committed to the welfare of pensioners. That I know for sure. The Honourable Minister has also made that known that they are very committed to the welfare of pensioners and senior citizens. So I plead that you should just give us a little time to now begin to pursue some of these issues and get back to you as to what the results would be.
On the issue of NUP and FEPPPAN, ES said; “As far as the Registrar of Trade Unions of the Ministry of Labour is concerned, there are two recognised unions for Defined Benefit pensioners. And that is the Nigerian Union of Pensioners and FEPPPAN. And for whatever kind of activity we are carrying out, FEPPPAN and NUP must be in the know. So if we have not been doing that, it is something we have to recognize and start doing. These two unions are recognized by the Registrar of Trade Unions, as the two pension unions that are registered and recognized. Every other union is an affiliate ir subsidiary of the two, like FUPA is an affiliate of FEPPPAN and the Federal Civil Service pensioners are affiliate of NUP and so many other sectors affiliating to wherever they belong.
On Pension increment, she noted; “We’re expecting one next year based on when we got the last one. I don’t think it is anything to worry about. The minute there’s an increment in salaries, automatically, there will be a consequential adjustment to pensions. So we are fighting for that. If salary is increased this year, that is fine. But if not we are still fighting for the increment for pensioners, as the Constitution stipulates.”
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