32 YEARS OF THE MILITARY PENSION BOARD

By: Emmanuel Y. Kwache

“Many of the pensioners under the Abuja bridge are fake,we caught 50 of them with fake papers.”

That was Brigadier –General BVT Kwaji,the Chairman ,Military Pension Board speaking on some of the challenges facing the 32 year old organization,The Military Pension Board.

His experience as an accountant has impacted on the execution of its mandate to the gallant soldiers,who served the country in their prime.

The Military Pension Board is all about the Payment of discharge gratuities and death benefits to all Armed Forces personnel or the next of kin as the case may be to those who have put in minimum of five years and gratuities and monthly pension for those that have put in minimum of ten years.

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Before the advent of the Brigadier-General BVT Kwaji administration about two years ago,there were a lot of problems regarding the release of funds for the payment of gratuities and death benefits to pensioners leading to outstanding arrears of both pension and gratuities spanning over three to ten years in some cases.

When the present Board was constituted,they made a presentation to the Government,the arrears were cleared and the situation changed as funds were released and the retires were paid as and when due.

The Board put in place structures that ensured hitch free and prompt payment.Pension is a continuous process and as they finished one today, so is another pensioner coming in the following day with a fresh problem that they must solve.

The Military Pension Board  is on budgetary appropriation like any other Government agency,so what they do is based on budgetary provision which is why they operate on pay as go hinged on what is gotten from Government at a particular time.

Currently,they do not have any outstanding payment of arrears to any genuine pensioner,impeccable source disclosed.Any pensioner that has a problem and presents himself before the Board is attended to individually and immediately.

One of the challenges, the Board has faced consistently is the issue of fake pensioners trying to get on the payroll.On seeing that they  were on payment exercise  especially the last one at the headquarters ,as some fake pensioners were always trying to wangle their ways into the pension roll.they put in place  a structure that detected fake pensioners and kept them at bay

One of such ways adopted is through e-process,where comprehensive Data Base that detects who was paid and when.Before now they have had a situation,whereby someone would come several times with one number,but different names and still have acess to payment.They have been able to put a stop to that with the Data Base which was why they have been able to detect the fake pensioners.

The Military Pension Board ensured that their documents are verified from Army Records in Lokoja,where the status of the discharged is clarified whether it is a case of voluntary  retirement,dismissal or medically boarded case.It is from the feedback that they work.Among those on the streets and under the bridge are the families of the medically boarded,they would come and say that their father died sometime ago and have come for their entitlements .The Board always tell them that they are not entitled,but some would be so adamant not to leave.

Currently there are  over 135000 pensioners on the  payroll of  the Nigerian Military Pension Board.The pensioners, concise sources reveal  outnumber those still serving.According to Brigadier-General BVT Kwaji in one interview,he granted a Pension Magazine,because people  retire almost on a Daily basis, the pensioners keep increasing in volume.What has assisted in dousing the tension, he said elsewhere in another interview is that whereby payments were made through zonal banks, now at this moment they have eased the process and pensioners can access their pay through any consolidated bank. Anyone without an account with any of the Banks would not be paid. The Board has instructed genuine verified pensioner to open an account anywhere near them.What  the Board does everymonth is to service the account with the entitlement.Those seen on the queue at the headquarters are those that are just bringing in their account numbers.Everything eases once the process is concluded and they key the numbers into their data base. So every month  the Board give one cheque  to each bank based on the numbers on their  list,we subsequently credit the account once it clears.This explains why there has  been less noise about payments in recent times.This is mainly duely to the skill of Brigadier-General BVT Kwaji,who is an accountant by training from the beginning.

In fact many persons  out there didn’t know that the medically unfit ex-soldiers that were boarded out of service  between 1977and 1986 because of one reason or the other  did not qualify for pension .This is because then to qualify for gratuity ,one must put in a minimum of ten and fifteen years for pension,but in 1992,there was a review of the Pension Act that brought down the number of years to qualify for these entitlements as it is today.

Since that review was made,the group of ex-soldiers started agitating for the payment of their pension because they thought that if someone put in ten years and did not go to war and was being given pension,why should they not be entitled to pension after been to war and having served for ten years?

But law is law,when the review was done,it was not backdated to cover that period.Around the year 2000 or thereabout the Nigerian Army Headquarters attempted to address the situation by placing them on the payroll, because it was thought that they were not many,but when the first batch came out,they were over 15000.Some were registered and the Board was directed to commence paying them the pension which the Board did successfully.

Later another group numbering over 9000 came agitating for their own pay too.However,when the Government at this point realized the number would not stop ,they were directed to stop,because the large number was unexpected.Theywere initially thought to be few,but when they turned out in thousands and coupled with the fact that they were not entitled to it in the first place,they were directed to drop them from the pension payroll.

They continued to agitate forcefully,until,last August,when the present administration, directed that  the Board verify the claims,because they were becoming a source of embarrassment to the Government staying under the bridges and on the streets of Abuja.Meanwhile,it should be understood that some of them were voluntary retirees that do not qualify for the Pension based on the number of years,they have put in.

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The verification exercise was carried out between November and December last year and Mr.President’s gesture was specifically hinged on humanitarian ground and his approval for the payment was effected January this year.Those verified have been placed on monthly payroll.It is not the duty of the Board either to go and look for the medically boarded soldiers.They should rather come to the Headquarters and present their case to be looked into.There is no way anyone can be underpaid by the Board too,as there are procedures.The amount they are entitled to is calculated  based on the last pay received on discharge from service and on the number of years served.

It is such that 35 years of service attract 80%.So it couldn’t have been true the claim by some that a medically boarded private is entitled to N24,000.00.AS a matter of fact,it is this year that the Federal Government reviewed the Pension of Federal workers ,Armed Forces Personnel inclusive.As late as in April this year,soldiers were receiving as little as N1000.00 as monthly salary.The only constraint on the amount paid in the pension paid is the 12% of 2003 and the 15% of 2007.The Government is already working towards ensuring that they get paid once funds are got.

So,some of the remarkable changes by this Board under the leadership of Brigadier-General BVT Kwaji as culled specifically in some National Dailies,The Nation:Vol.3,No.0782  Wednesday September 10,pages A3 and A5 and Leadership on Sunday, September 14, 2008 page 28 before they came ,verification was done on Zonal Basis,but they discontinued with that system by decentralizing it to the states and the Federal Capital Territory to  make it easier  for the retirees and lessen the stress they go through.

On the payment exercise ,the process has been slow,because they wanted to be sure that those they are paying are the true beneficiaries.This is because the former system was prone to abuse.Repeatedly there are some people out that print fake papers for these retirees and it is always difficult to differentiate the genuine from the fake.During the last payment exercise where over 3000 pensioners and next of kin{NOK}of  deceased soldiers benefited over 50 fake pensioners were.

Paying all the fake pensioners would amount to lost of money.One might think they are aged and fragile,but what some of them are capable of doing are unimaginable.They have always been telling them,if they can wait for so long to get to the Headquarters for the payment,some have even waited for five years-a few hours should not be too much in order to do a thorough job of it.

Moreover,once the cheque is collected,no one needs to come to Abuja again as long as the account number is given.They will access their pension from banks henceforth,sources indicate

So the initial delay was always ,the documentation and collection of cheque.Whatever stress they might have passed through was for their own good to avoid paying someone else’s money to another.Those apprehended are handed over to the Police for prosecution as  a deterrent to others.Genuine pensioners do not need to stay under the bridge.Staying under the bridge does not solve any problem.The advice given to any pension is for them to use banks whose services are satisfactory.

Emmanuel Y.Kwache,a Freelance Journalist and Commentator on National Issues wrote this from 30 Gambia Crescent,Bekaji Estate,Jimeta-Yola,Adamawa State.08034363618 08055531975 E-mail:emmanuelyamekwahe@yahoo.com