Stop borrowing pension funds to finance budget deficits, Oshiomhole tells FG

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has advised the Federal Govrnment to stop
borrowing from the pension funds to finance budget deficits.

Oshiomhole, who stated this yesterday at the opening of a
presidential policy retreat at the Presidential Villa, Abuja said
all pension assets must be deployed to investments in critical
sectors that impact directly on the lives of ordinary Nigerians. He
said it was unfair to use pension funds that are the contribution
of poor Nigerian workers to finance projects that often do not
benefit them directly.

The APC chairman, who called for a complete overhaul of Federal
Government’s economic policies to address inequalities and tackle
poverty, said there was need to develop long term plans that would
replace the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan which expires in a
couple of years. He said that poverty has continued to ravage
Nigerians despite efforts by the current administration to address
the scourge.

Oshiomhole explained that PENCOM was originally initiated to
provide long term loans for housing development. “The logic behind
introducing the pension scheme under PENCOM, was that the workers’
social capital that they deducted every month, which they would not
need to draw on until they retire about 30 years or 35 years later,
provide a basis for long term fund.

Happily, PENCOM has generated over N5-6 trillion since it
commenced operation. “Unfortunately, the money is borrowed by
government, both federal and state and unfortunately it is not
available to address the social purpose of the working people whose
contributions the pension fund evolved.

“I ask our expert to recognize that the primary purpose of the
workers’ social capital is that it would be creatively managed and
deployed to workers’ social needs including housing, education and
all the other factors. It wasn’t meant to fund government’s
deficit, it wasn’t meant to support Federal Government deficit; it
was meant to address the primary social purpose of those who work
so that they are sure that by the time they are retired, they have
a modest home to retire to. “I think we must visit these issues,
address them.

The poor people’s money must be used to address the critical
challenges of the poor. May God drive our thoughts, our processes
and rejig everything so that at the end of the day, those people
would say, Yes, sai baba! We elected him, we trusted him and he has
delivered.

“Everywhere in the world, people have access to credit. We have
to drop a system where unless you have stashed away millions of
naira, you can’t build a house in Nigeria,” he said.

The APC chairman called on the participants at the retreat to
come up with implementable policies to address Nigeria’s social
economic crises. He noted that despite the progress made in the
economy under the Buhari administration, there are still huge gaps
to be filled, adding that “there is room for improvement.”

“On the economy, there is the challenge of high rate of poverty,
inequality, access to credit and mortgage. Mr President, I know
deep in your heart and assessing the basis of our campaign the
issue of inequality is primary.

“We don’t just want to grow the economy; we need to create more
wealth. We are also interested in who is benefiting from this
wealth and what policy instruments are required to ensure that
inequality is addressed and that the average Nigerian people,
particularly the mass that constitutes the electorate, benefit from
the fruit of growth.

“This will require a review of access to credit and access to
mortgage, unemployment, low level of manufacturing and the need for
diversification of the economy. In addition, there is the need to
increase our revenue, block leakages and ensure that our budget
delivers services to the citizens,” he said. Speaking on the
anticorruption war of the current administration, he advocated the
need to ensure more actions and preventive measures by involving
Nigerian citizens, the society in the prosecution of offenders.

“There are many who have said that we should not just pursue
corruption, we should deal with how to even prevent it. Everywhere
in the world, people have access to credit. We can’t continue with
a system where you have to have N20 million, N50 million or even
N100 million to be able to build a house. “The banking system is
not delivering to the ordinary people. Access to credit remains a
major issue.

Let me share my own ignorance, I am unable to understand, for
example as a worker, why in Europe when they are in economic
recession, they reduce their interest rate, in Nigeria, when we are
in recession, we increase our interest rate. “How do we price money
at such level and expect that the ordinary people can borrow to set
up businesses? We do need practical solutions beyond theories. We
need to re-examine our condition what we saw is different from what
we see elsewhere in the world.

“If you want to buy a car, Mr. President, you must have N20
million to pay cash. To have N20 million to pay cash, if you are
not a big businessman, it cannot possibly come from a legitimate
salary, given the known salary structure in the Nigerian public
sector and even the disclosed portion of the Nigerian private
sector. “So, if people desire to buy a car and the banking system
is not open to credit, the only way is to steal big in order to
purchase. But we have all travelled round the world, 10 per cent is
enough to own a car if you have verifiable job and a banking
history and you pay in instalment.

“So, we do need to review all of these so that in dealing with
corruption, we deal with the preventive part,” he added. Oshiomhole
also called for mechanism to increase revenue and blocking leakages
and ensuring that every revenue agency remits to the federation
account what is due in a timely manner. Other suggestions made by
the APC chairman was for participants at the retreat to come up
with what he called, the “how and a radical change”.

He also called for a rejig of the nation’s security apparatus
and operationally use community policing which is already being
discussed. The APC national chairman also said that there was need
for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to have a
strategic plan to review the question of how, since it is obvious
that many people now know the problems confronting the country.

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