Date Published: 11/09/11
Otunba Mike Adenuga: Is this man above the law?
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Otunba Mike Adenuga |
When the federal government sold National Oil now known as Conoil to
Otunba Mike Adenuga in 2000, the pensioners wrote to the then Director
General of BPE Mrs. Irene Chigbue alerting her of a costly mistake of
not separating the pension trust fund from the asset of the company.
This fund was set up for the staff by Shell West Africa the former
owner of the company before the government compulsorily acquired 60%
of the company in 1995. The pensioners intimated her that the fund is
independent of the company and Adenuga who had no known welfare scheme
in place in any of his companies would not be an ideal person to
manage their fund. The Director General ignored our letter.
Mike Adenuga came in and sacked the whole staff he met on ground less
than two years after (including the trustees of the fund) simply
because he hated the idea of having unions in his company. He first
tried to sack the executives of NUPENG and PENGASAN, but we violently
resisted this move. I am one of the people he sacked in his prime. I
was barely 45 years old then.
The Pensioners wrote another letter to the BPE director when their
fear was confirmed that Adenuga would run National Oil as a one-man
show sacking people at will. She ignored this letter too.
The dream of every worker is to one day retire and enjoy the benefit
that would accrue to him after his or her many years of active
service. Every worker desires a life of ease and relaxation after
retirement. National Oil (Conoil) workers always celebrate retirement
because it is a dream come true. This was the norm in the company
until the arrival of Otunba Mike Adenuga. His arrival in national oil
marks the beginning of sorrow for the 500 odd pensioners remaining on
his payroll.
The Shell Group established The Shell Pension Scheme under its
original name of Shell West Africa Staff Non-contributory Pension Fund
on 1st January 1952. They registered the scheme with the Ministry of
Trades now Corporate Affairs Commission as a TRUST SCHEME for the
company’s employees on retirement. It remained a non-contributory
scheme funded solely by the Shell Group when it was in control. When
the Federal Government compulsorily acquired 60% of the company in the
wake of 1975 indigenization decree, the government retained the
scheme.
The Shell Group Pension Scheme that Conoil inherited in 2000 is still
on in Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). It has been in
existence for more than 50 years.
Conoil has not added any value to the fund since its arrival in
National oil in the year 2000. Mike Adenuga ignored the statutory
requirement that he contributes a certain percentage of the company’s
gross profit to the pension fund before declaring profit after tax.
The pension account into which Conoil never contributed a kobo since
it took it over has a balance of over two billion (both liquid and
fixed asset) in 2006 when conoil purportedly audited its account. The
fund has been a source of easy and interest free fund for Mike Adenuga
who has been running it according to his whim and caprice since then.
When Mike Adenuga took over as the core investor in National Oil in
2000, he suspended the 12% annual pension increase approved by the
fund since October 1994. It did not bother the man that 71.96% of
Conoil pensioners are earning between N3,360 and N7,499 at a time when
minimum wages in Nigeria has gone beyond N10, 000 which is now
N18,000.00. Otunba Mike Adenuga did not care about Federal government
directive on harmonization of fringe benefits with basic salary when
calculating pensions [govt. directive of 30th Jan. 1997, 11th May 1999
and 6th July 1999]. These ridiculous earnings remain today after 10
years of Conoil misadventure in the once vibrant company called
National Oil without a kobo increase!
The pensioners took Mike Adenuga to court in 2008 to compel him to
release his stranglehold on their fund since the money does not belong
to his company. This will enable the pensioners distribute the balance
in the fund as they deem fit.
Because of the attendant bad publicity the case will generate for him
and his company, Otunba Mike Adenuga quickly agreed to settle with the
pensioners without the case coming up in the open court. The
pensioners made the mistake of thinking they could trust Adenuga to
honour any agreement reached.
The Lagos high court appointed a senior judge to be the arbiter in the
matter. The negotiation lasted more than 30 month at the Mediation
Centre of the Lagos High Court before an agreement was finally reached
in January this year.
After having made the pensioners signed an undertaking not to go to
court after paying the agreed sum, and after the senior judge in
charge, his lawyers, our lawyers from SERAC and our representatives
had signed the agreement, Adenuga refused to append his signature to
the agreement reached. The court had to write two strong letters to
warn the Otunba when it became obvious all he wanted was a negotiation
without end.
Eleven members had died as at the last count since the negotiation
started. Adenuga’s lawyers always come to court singing the same song
of not being able to see the Otunba. This has been the trend for past
ten months despite each party in the negotiation reaching an agreement
on how to disburse the balance in the fund. It is either Adenuga’s
daughter is getting married or EFCC invites the man to Abuja or one
excuse or the other. The Judge asked on one occasion if Adenuga had
become a god that mere mortal couldn’t see.
The pensioners (many of whom have been demoralized by the never-ending
negotiation) are already getting suspicious albeit erroneously that
they have been sold out by their executives. Given Adenuga’s
predilection for the Babangida style of administration, their fear
might not be wholly misplaced.
When Mike Adenuga in January this year with the court appointed judge
in attendance agreed through his lawyers to pay the pensioners 1.033B
out of the audited 2.6B balance in the pension trust fund, the
pensioners agreed out of fear that many of them may never see the
colour of the money in their lifetime if they insisted on the 2.6B in
the account. Ten months after, we are still waiting for the money.
This is one of the serious flaws in the privatization process. Our
fund should not have been given to Mike Adenuga to run since the trust
fund is independent of National Oil which he bought. Many of our
members had died in poverty since he decided to stop our yearly
increment. What can anyone do with N3600 in this present-day Nigeria?
Since Adenuga had reneged on the agreement, we are no more interested
in his offered 1.033B but the 2.06B balance that is in the audited
account hence we took the decision on the 1st of November 2011 at the
meeting held at the Eagle Club to picket Mike Adenuga tower at 18A
Oko-Awo Victoria Island come November 14th.
We have no money to fight somebody of Adenuga’s status but we have
justice on our side. We would not have been able to afford legal fees
if lawyers from SERAC had not decided to take up our case free of
charge hence we are calling on Nigerian to be on the look out for what
Adenuga might want to do that day.
Jeremiah Ajibola Oluti Sr.
On behalf of Nigeria Union of Pensioners Conoil Branch. |
