People invest in their pension schemes so that when they are old and unable to work again, they'll have something to fall back on, but if Governor Adams oshiomole's revelations is anything to go by, it appears if you have been saving in pencom to have something for your old age, you have been pouring water in a basket! Accordin to the governor when he was asked about former \Minister, Diezani's arrest for money laundering and all in the UK, he said: “I have not seen one commentator that disagrees. Even when they talk
about rebasing and so what. Have you rebased the level of poverty? Have
you rebased prosperity? Have you rebased unemployment? Have you rebased
homelessness? Have you rebased hunger?
“So I have not seen anyone that says Nigerian people are doing
better. This was never my issue. I was only a spokesman of National
Economic Council. But, in this country, when you speak out, all the
arrows should be fashioned to attack. But one of the things I learnt in
life at the age of 17 when I got into the leadership of labour, is that
the truth does not require supporters club. It can stand on its feet
anyday. You can hit it. You can kick it. You can bomb it, but you can’t
destroy it.
“The truth is that a lot of money was stolen and what you are seeing
is just a tip of the iceberg, because when you imagine what accrues to
Nigeria, consistently from 140 dollars averaging 108 dollars over a long
period of time and yet your treasury is empty and you were running a
budget deficit, you were devoting 85 percent of your budget for four
consecutive years on recurrent, you were borrowing and you drew the
entire pensions fund…yesterday I saw a lot of analysis of how pension
funds should be invested on infrastructure.
“You challenge Pencom and Ministry of Finance, you will discover that
over N3.5 trillion was drawn down by the previous government from
pension funds to support recurrent expenditure, not to support
infrastructure. Even the media here, I wonder why you want to hear it
from me because some of the issues we parrot flow from what we have read
from your electronic media and print media, arising from what you have
observed.
“There have been probes, there have been revelations , where whistle
blowers have been removed from office; they became guilty for speaking
out. I believe time will tell how much was taken and who was involved.
“I think what you are hearing now is like appetizer. Its sickening. It used to come from America, now its Britain.”
“It’s not about who has hand in what. I think it’s about law and order.
In other climes, institutions do their work. They are not at the beck
and call of political authority. They have their mandate and the law
specifies this and it is scrupulously followed.
“I’m the happiest person because I’ve been in government for seven
years without being in power. I was in government, I couldn’t call a
commissioner of police and talk as a security officer, I’m haunted by
all manner of persons. You kill the snake in Edo, they will put the
snake on life support in Abuja and they keep harassing us....
...Now all those venoms are dead and buried, for the first time, I’m
excited and happy, not just for personal benefit, but for the changes
I’m beginning to see. They’ve not started scrutinising, just blocking
the holes, it’s no longer flowing like before and so the propensity to
indulge in those conspicuous habit, already curbing themselves... People are regaining sanity; human rationality
is returning and the idle class that makes money without office or
business address whose only address is an ipad and cell phone with
appropriate phone numbers are all lamenting and not sure of tomorrow.”
”
