Over the years, the management of pension schemes in Nigeria has been fraught with multiple and diverse problems, causing many government workers to dread life after retirement from the public service.

The palpable fear of retirement from active public service appears to be widespread, as a cross-section of military pensioners also expressed similar fears at a recent forum in Abuja.

The pensioners attributed the trend to poor pension fund administration, outright corruption; inadequate build-up of funds and poor supervision.

They noted that the Nigerian media had been inundated with reports of sharp practices in the management of police pensions and frauds in the civil service pensions, among others.

Observers, however, insist that military pension administration in the country has been particularly plagued by poorly organised pensioners’ verification; skewed flow of information between government and the pensioners; and mutual distrust between pensioners and government, among others.

Such factors have resulted in frosty relations between the Military Pensions Board — which represents the Federal Government — and the pensioners, through their various unions.

A leader of the pensioners, retired Col. P.A Zubair once told newsmen in an interactive session on March 14, 2015 that the military pensioners were particularly unhappy about the illegal deductions from their allowances, among other issues.

He stressed that previous military pensioners’ verification exercises, especially the ones organised in the FCT, had been poorly organised, saying that the pensioners also found the development irritating.

These exercises have attracted negative comments from concerned citizens who noted that some of the military pensioners often thronged the streets of Abuja begging for alms.

For instance, a military pensioner from Benue State, Mr Pius Nege, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the recent stakeholders’ forum on military pension in Abuja that he had always dreaded such verification exercises because of the myriad difficulties associated with them.

Such negative comments, perhaps, prompted the Military Pensions Board, under the leadership of Air Vice Marshal Mohammed Dabo, to introduce practical measures to address some of the nagging problems of military pension administration.

The board on Sept. 14, 2015 held its maiden stakeholders interactive forum in Abuja to reduce communication gap existing between it and the pensioners.

Dabo, at the opening of the forum, said that the initiative would be sustained so as to build the needed synergy among the various stakeholders involved in military pension administration.

Through this process, he added, pensioners would constantly be allowed to make suggestions that would facilitate the pensions’ management and payment process.

Also speaking, Mr Aliyu Ismaila, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to improving the welfare of military retirees.

He pledged that military pension administration, under the present dispensation, would be transparent in line with the “change’’ agenda of the Federal Government.

He said that the approval and payment of the 33 per cent pension increment to military pensioners, among other packages lined up for the pensioners, were a practical demonstration of government’s commitment.

“The plight of our military retirees is of great concern to the Federal Government and many efforts have been made in the past by successive governments to ameliorate the sufferings of our esteemed retired military personnel.

“The present administration, in consolidating the gains of the past efforts concerning the welfare of military retirees, is working hard to find lasting solutions to some of the challenges facing the pensioners,’’ he said.

Sharing similar sentiments, the National President of the Nigerian Legion, retired Col. Micah Gayya, applauded the efforts of the Federal Government, through the Military Pensions Board, to reform the pension system.

He said that the board was making pragmatic efforts to make the pension payment process more efficient and credible through improved communication and verification of pensioners’ records.

“There was the issue of communication gap among the various leaders of the pensioners’ union. For instance, you have the state chairman, the local government chairman and the ward chairman but the communication arrangement was not properly coordinated.

“Once the state chairman knows something and the local government chairman doesn’t know it; then, there is bound to be problems.

“But we have taken care of this gap because once the state chairman has any information from forums such as this; he goes back and shares the information with the leaders at the lower tiers.”

Gayya, however, stressed that the onus still rested on all stakeholders, including leaders of the pensioners’ unions, to help drive the process.

On his part, Wing Cdr. Nuhu Gambo, an executive member of the Retired Army Navy and Air Force Officers Association, an association of retired military officers, re-echoed Gayya’s views on the board’s new initiatives.

He said that apart from making the pension management process more transparent and credible; the initiatives would unite all military retirees across the various ranks.

“Indeed, this is what we have been waiting for; the togetherness of the pensioners has never happened before.

“This is the first time all ex-servicemen under different platforms have been brought together in this country.

“The military pension board has done everything possible to see that our problems are taken care of; they have done their best by bringing us together to close the gap that existed between us in the past.

“And with this development, RANAO, the association of ex-servicemen, and the Legion have now come together to fight for a common cause: the payment of our harmonised pension. Indeed, this is a welcome development.”

Another initiative that has received wide acceptance among the retirees is the reinvigorated biometric verification exercise.

One of the pensioners, retired Lance Cpl. Emmanuel Anaemeje told NAN at the venue of the military pensioners verification exercise in Keffi on Oct. 7, 2015 that the Military Pensions Board, through the exercise, had demonstrated its willingness to address the plight of pensioners.

He conceded that the present format of verifying military pensioners was faster and more efficient; adding that it would also save cost and weed out ghost pensioners from the system.

“So far so good; from what I saw when I came here this morning, the process is faster and easier. Within 20 minutes, 30 people have been verified.

“On the whole, the exercise is better; chairs and other things were made available to us unlike before.

“In the past, all ranks would converge at the same time, the crowd was often too large to control; a lot of pensioners would faint, several others would sleep here, sometimes for one week.

“This time around, we are handled according to our ranks, so there is sanity,” Anaemeje added.

In addition, the free enrolment of military retirees for the health insurance scheme, under the Defence Health Maintenance Limited (DHML) — the agency in charge of the health insurance of the Armed Forces personnel — is another milestone for the board.

The Chief Executive Officer of DHML, retired Commodore Ahmed Abdullahi, who decried the low enrolment of military retirees, said that the services were free and would not require any deduction from the ex-servicemen’s monthly pensions.

He said that the Federal Government paid the health insurance premium to hospitals every year.

He said the organisation was established by the Federal Government to administer the health insurance of the Nigerian Armed Forces and ex-servicemen.

“In 2012, the Federal Executive Council brought the military retirees under the scheme and made provisions for their health care.

“This department takes care of a substantial part of the retirees’ health burden and it is not based on deductions from their pensions; the Federal Government pays for it 100 per cent.

“We have about 300 hospitals across the country under our scheme and they take care of the registered retirees and their spouses,’’ he said.

Abdullahi said the scheme was also designed to cater for widowers and widows of deceased military personnel as well as four biological children of the retirees who were under the age of 18.

He called on the ex-servicemen who had yet to register with the scheme to avail themselves of opportunities provided by the scheme.

All in all, observers believe that the new order of military pension administration will restore the dignity of the ex-servicemen, while fostering the evolution of good relations between the government and retired soldiers.

They, nonetheless, underscore the need for all stakeholders to make pragmatic efforts to sustain the gains recorded in military pension administration under the aegis of the Military Pensions Board.