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.