By Amos Aar
THE OGUN State chapter of the Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR), has said it stands in solidarity with the state’s workers over their threat to embark on an industrial action to press home their demands for the payment of N40b unremitted contributory pension fund deductions over a period spanning 15 years (160 months).
Comrade Eko John Nicholas, CDWR’s Ogun State coordinator, in a statement made available to National Record, expressed concern over the refusal of Governor Dapo Abiodun’s administration to remit the deducted pension funds to the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).
“We support all industrial actions, should the APC-led Dapo Abiodun’s government fail to accede to the workers’ demands. More so, we condemn the Dapo Abiodun’s government in the strongest terms for continuously withholding and refusing to remit the deducted pension funds to the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), despite repeated calls by workers/unions on the government before now,” Eko said, adding that several instances where the workers wrote to the governor, demanding explanations for their unpaid contributory pension deductions but he allegedly remained adamant.
The statement further reads: “According to newspapers reports, the workers’ leaderships through the TUC, NLC and JNC (Joint Negotiating Council) wrote to the Dapo Abiodun’s government in a letter dated 17th July, 2024. They demanded among other things: the release of the reports of committee, which was set up in October 2022 on the contentious issues of the unpaid contributory pension deductions by the same government, and has since refused to make same public after its findings!
“The workers also affirmed in the letter that successive governments from Gbenga Daniel through Ibikunle Amosun to the current Dapo Abiodun-led administrations have all defaulted in remitting the contributory pension fund to the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).
“Former Governor Gbenga Daniel owed 25 months before he left office. Ex-governor Ibikunle Amosun paid just only 9 months out of his eight-year tenure, while Governor Dapo Abiodun has not paid a dime since he came into office in 2019”.
According to CDWR, the workers had stated that they were forced to write the letter to the governor because, less than a year to 1st July, 2025 which is the effective date for the Contributory Pension Scheme according to the 2013 State Pension Reform Law amended in 2008, there is nothing on ground to show that the government is sincere towards the implementation of this pension scheme, totaling N40 billion in 15 years running!
“Sadly, they said the government has refused to remit to Pension Fund Administrators the sum of 7.5% contributory pensions deducted monthly from the salary of each worker for over 15 years, while the government (employer) has equally failed to pay its counterpart contribution of 7.5% of each worker’s salary, making a total of 15% to the PFAs.
“For us at the CDWR, all this has again underscored the anti-poor and anti-workers capitalist character of the Dapo Abiodun’s government, whose overriding interest is the quest to protect the profits and extravagance/opulence of a tiny few minority at the expense of the hardworking workers and poor people in the state, whose working and living conditions have continued to plummet in the face of the unending hardships and sufferings occasioned by its pro-rich policies including the unremitted contributory pension fund deductions, hike in school fees across tertiary institutions in the state, underfunding of public schools from primary to tertiary levels, privatization and commercialization of social services including health and housing, collapsed infrastructure including roads across the state, imposition of neck-breaking taxes, levies etc.
“All these have been made worse by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s anti-poor neo-liberal policies of petrol subsidy removal and the devaluation of the national currency. On the other hand, the elected public officials both at state and federal levels and their big business collaborators live in opulence and luxury at the expense of the populace.
“The CDWR, therefore calls on the Dapo Abiodun’s government to without delay make public the committee reports, and in the same vein, pay all the withheld unremitted contributed pension funds to the Pension Fund Administrators. This is important, as the fates of hundreds of thousands of public/civil service workers across the state are presently hanging on the balance after retirements. This is more disheartening given that each of these workers might have served the state meritoriously for over 30 years! Also worrisome is that if all the contributed pension are adequately remitted is not enough to meet the needs of retirees considering the rising cost of living and inflation.
“We urge the workers through their various trade unions not to baulk at pressing on their demands, but rather immediately commence sensitization and mobilization of workers through public/mass campaigns including mass meetings in workplaces, leafleting, media campaigns, rallies, sit-ins, symposia etc., as parts of activities to herald the industrial action, should the Dapo Abiodun’s government refuse to accede to the demands of workers. Above all, we equally urge the workers to be united in their demands, and the struggles to actualizing them, and calls on the national headquarters of both NLC and TUC to lend support to the Ogun workers demands, and well-meaning groups and individuals including the civil society organizations to give solidarity to the workers,” the statement further read.
