Guardian

EVEN as the Senate Joint Committee on Establishment and States and Local Governments ended its public hearing on pension administration in the country, chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) has said that the team is still in the process of recovering a whopping sum of N3 trillion pension fund trapped some where just as he disclosed that plans are afoot to float a social insurance scheme that would cushion the pains of the unemployed in the country.

Chairman of the PRTT, Adulrasheed Maina, who disclosed this in a chat with journalists in Abuja at the weekend also faulted the assertion by the Senate Joint Committee that the sum of N95 billion pension fund was yet to be accounted for.

Speaking on the fresh discovery, Maina said, ‘right now, like I told you, we are pursuing something on N3 trillion pension funds. We don’t want anything to jeopardize our investigations. Our officers have gone far. We are talking about stolen cash worth N3 trillion. If you are here and you are doing good for humanity and somebody comes and something happens then people will now understand the difference. I am only fighting for you and I and our children.’

The task team leader said that pension money in the kitty of the Federal Government should invest in a way to cushion the pains of the unemployed and infrastructural development in the country.

‘We are aware of the fact that there is about N3 trillion already in the pension system, which PENCOM is sitting on. That N3 trillion it is believed that if it is made available to state governments in Nigeria, our state governors don’t have to go abroad to go and take any loan to fund infrastructural development of this country.

“What I am saying is that if these monies can be well managed, it would be available for state governors to borrow and be able to pay like 10 per cent interest when they are returning it unlike the current situation that is available with the pension system in the country. Now these monies are the kinds of money we are saying that can be made available to our own government structure to borrow, used to develop our country and make our country a better place for all of us to say that we are proud of Nigeria.”

Maina said that contrary to the speculations in some quarters that he disrespected the Senate panel by refusing to appear and testify, he was worried about how the panel and his team would work with synergy to sanitise pension administration in the country. He also denied using godfather to spite the legislature.

His words,  ‘in this case, I don’t have anything like godfather, who is the godfather, where is the godfather, but one thing that I know that is clear is that these senators are people of high dignity and experience and these are people that we see as our role models and that is why I see that the same cause they are fighting is the same cause the executive is trying to fight.

“So that would have been an opportunity for the legislature and the executive to partner because even the Senate President, David Mark and the Committee members. I know are passionate about this.  Is it not an opportunity for us to now partner and develop this sector? I consider this a welcome idea and I’m really happy about it. What happened I think the Senate Committee was misinformed before we got there because people were scared that we might go into other pension office and so let them stop us.’’

Explaining why he could not make it to the last sitting of the joint committee, he said, “now we have gone to only two pension offices and discovered N251 billion.  So, let us not go to the next pension office that is my own thinking.

“How can I not respect the office of the Senate president, on the issue of warrant of arrest and at these level of my carrier government is carried on by the rule of law, if I have a problem and I know where to resort to if I feel I have been shortchanged, I have the court to go to, I cannot refuse any invitation, let me give you copies of our letter, remember, we wrote to the Senate, which I gave journalists copies and I forwarded that same letter to the committee and when they wrote me again I quoted that letter saying look I don’t believe that the task team will be given a fair hearing, we had already written a letter to the Senate president and we shall leave Senate president to give us  some one  that would come and they will listen to us and give us fair.

“Remember this committee had already gone to the press to pronounce us guilty so how can they give us fair hearing, we …Wrote them a letter and we said no we cannot do.  We are awaiting the result of the letter from the Senate president so they call it that we did not come how can they say so and on that final day when we agreed I had speech that I would have read, which I wanted read to Nigerians …It is just intervention of God that I didn’t walk in.

“ In fact I made every effort to get in there and suddenly I was told that they had adjourned. Since I was not the only person invited I thought that they would also be taking those people who had come around. I then asked what is the rational for inviting all those CEOs is it for charade, I don’t know.’’

On the threat to his life, he said, ‘this job is a life threatening job. My life has been threatened more than four times. I have been shot at twice. The problem is that Maina will never compromise I swear to God, I rather quit or resign but I will not compromise and that is my stand.’

He dismissed the claim of alleged missing N95 billion pension fund by the panel saying;  ‘On the issue of N195 billion, when I saw the arithmetic, I saw military pension of so, so amount, State Security pension, police pension. I’m not in charge of these pension offices.  We are not in charge of all these pensions. And then I saw 2005, we came into being in June 2010 and what I have got to do with 2005.

“We have done only two pension offices. We have just started our work and we are getting all these results what of if we enter other pension offices, what do you think will happen, how many trillions do you think Nigerians will see. Now the second thing is I don’t think if that n195 billion ever existed because, there is a lot of differences between budget proposal, envelop and releases. Releases and spent funds are two different things.’’