It is curious that six months after the appointment of a new board for the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, is in no hurry to inaugurate the board. President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Chief Frank Kokori as Chairman of NSITF.About four months after Ngiges odd delay, Kokori, a trade unionist and former secretary-general of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), protested during the 14th edition of the Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture/Symposium held in Lagos on January 15.Kokori said: Today, my rights are being abridged by a minister. You have this Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) where Nigerian workers and employers contribute money to, their pensions, their gratuities, their compensations are all there. Anytime they put a board in place, the board will almost eat the whole money. Now they sacked the board, a woman was the chairman; they say they are looking for herThe government, in its wisdom, when Nigerian labour and organised private sector, NECA, went to meet the president and said, please this is our board, reconstitute this board for uswe have two members, NECA has two members, Central Bank has one member, just like that, and three executive directors, we want to protect our money.Kokori continued: In September 2017, the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, phoned me and congratulated me that the president has made me the chairman of the NSITF. I should come to Abuja for us to negotiate the inauguration. Since SeptemberI go to Abuja every day. Ngige now runs the board. A board that was set up, where I am the chairman, I now go and beg Ngige every day. Let us swear inhe will say tomorrow he is going to bury his grandmother. The next day, he is going to a naming ceremony. Ngige has no time to swear in the board. He was busy employing hundreds and hundreds of his own community people until recently they had to stop himUp till today, four months after I was appointed by the president Ngige runs the NSITF singlehandedly and as a minister, and he does what he likes. This is what we call impunity.A month later, Ngige inaugurated a nine-member Administrative Panel of Inquiry (API) into the finances of NSITF, saying that the move was in line with the Buhari administrations war against corruption. Was it a response to Kokoris protest'Ngige said: The last Board and Administration of the NSITF left negative trails inimical to any advancement and progress for both the human and infrastructural components of the NSITF. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had discovered various acts of fraudulent diversions from the Federal Government and Private Sector Contributions amounting to N62.3 billion as at 2015, allegedly perpetrated by the past board and management staff of the NSITF.It is noteworthy that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a former NSITF managing director, Umar Munir Abubakar, and four others for alleged diversion of N18bn of the said money. The EFCC has also questioned and detained a former NSITF chairman, Dr. Ngozi Ojeleme, for alleged diversion of over $48m from the agencys account.After Ngige inaugurated the API, a report said an attempt was made to bribe the minister. It quoted a source as saying: In the attempt to stop the administrative probe, some of those implicated sent an emissary to the minister to forget the past and gloss over the fraud which borders on diversion of PAYEE, pension funds and other remittances. They offered a $4million bribe cash to be paid in two tranches to halt the inquiry and spare the suspects. They were really desperate to cover up. The minister rejected the bait and told the front of the suspects that he would never be part of any under-the-table deal to cover up the looting of workers entitlements. The desperation made the minister suspicious that there was more to the fraud in the system than meets the eye. We believe the administrative inquiry will assist the government to uncover the rot in NSITF. Ngige reportedly confirmed the bribe offer. Who tried to bribe him' Why did he not get those involved arrested'It looked like a story to justify the delay in inaugurating the Kokori-led board. The quoted source said: Actually, the ongoing probe of NSITF delayed the inauguration of the new board of the agency headed by Comrade Frank Kokori. In fact, going by the latest revelations, some labour leaders have been fingered in the scam. These leaders were discovered to have influenced the nomination of one or two members of the board in order to cover up their tracks. Some members of the new board need security checks in the light of the revelations from the investigation by the EFCC. There is no way the new board will be inaugurated in the present circumstances in NSITF. We need to clean up the system for the new board to have a better take-off.What this means is that Ngiges one-man show will continue. Observers have noted that without a proper board, there are serious issues that cannot be properly addressed. For instance, alleged wrong employment of persons that are 50 years old and above and alleged payment of monthly salaries to some people who had retired and were drawing pension but were given fresh employment and were currently earning salaries. It is said that a significant number of the affected people are from Ngiges ethnic group, so he would not allow action to be taken. Another allegation against Ngige: He also directed us to send the letters of the employed staff which we refused to release at our end to his office. Lets see what he wants to do with the letters.In addition, there is the issue of the report of proper placement, which is reportedly gathering dust on Ngiges table. There is also the story of alleged secret employment into the already bloated workforce of the Fund, which is said to be ongoing. A worried NSITF employee said: My worry is that some of us with Retirement Savings Account with Trustfund are in the soup. Management is in arrears of funding our PFA.The question is: For how long will Ngige continue to waste time by not inaugurating a proper board for NSITF'The post Ngiges one-man show appeared first on The Nation Nigeria.
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