Comrade Maria Lebeke, before her retirement, was Director of Finance in NULGE. In this telephone interview held on October 27 and November 3, 2021, she offered some revealing insight on the problems surrounding the union’s retirement benefits’ narrative.
NATIONAL Record (NR): We gathered that you were in the Finance Department, in fact, the Director of Finance for some time before your exit; how come did the retirement benefits issue degenerate to a level that the union is not able to pay gratuity and regular pension to its retirees, including yourself?
Comrade Lebeke: Any time we raised cheque, Comrade Khaleel will refuse to sign. At that time, the current President, Comrade Ambali, was the National Treasurer, they crippled us. When we went to Trustfund Pensions Ltd, they said we do not have money in our accounts; and that we should go back to our office to collect our money. Throughout my service years since the contributory pension scheme began, they only credited my account with N800 thousand. This thing is affecting us so badly now.
We demanded that they should use the old scheme to compute our pension, they refused. Every time, they will form committee for pension; for years now, they have been forming pension committee and that has not yielded any good result. Even the money they said they saved is nowhere to be found. I can’t understand! During Khaleel’s time, they said they had calculated our pension. For my 32 years in service, they said both pension and gratuity amount to N11 million.
The first payment I collected was when I was about to do operation on my eye; it was N1.6 million, and that was after I had retired for almost two years. In fact, they refused to pay me until I signed an undertaking, and that the petition I wrote to PenCom should be withdrawn. I had to write and sign.
How can I retire as a director and after 32 years, I am collecting only N11 million? I calculated on my own and gave them, they refused. I was the accountant. I was the one calculating for everybody until Comrade Ambali came as the National Treasurer, and from there he became National President
The people that retired before us, were using old scheme to calculate, even as at the time I retired in 2017, I calculated for those that retired three months before me with the old scheme. We didn’t queue into the contributory scheme.
NR: When did you join the services of NULGE?
Lebeke: I joined NULGE in July 1985 and I retired in 2017 as a Director of Finance.
NR: How much have you been paid as gratuity upon retirement and up to now?
Lebeke: I have been paid up to N5 million. You see, what happened; the issue is that we do not have any money in PenCom…
NR: Comrade, don’t mix this up. How much of your gratuity has been paid to you, I am not talking about pension?
Lebeke: My gratuity is supposed to be, em, just give me some time so that I can trace the figure.
NR: What about Pension?
Lebeke: If we were to see, I would have shown you a number of cheques that I raised and they refused to sign. I remember vividly a day, Comrade [Oluyemi] Esan, the National Treasurer, pressurised…, we agreed that I should raise a cheque for them to sign; the GS [Comrade Irapakob] signed, but when it got to the late National President, he refused to sign and warned me never to raise that cheque again, but I was deducting and when I raised cheque to go to PenCom, they refused to sign.
NR: Who refused to sign?
Lebeke: The President!
NR: That is the late Comrade Khaleel?
Lebeke: Yes!
NR: What about the Treasurer?
Lebeke: The Treasurer that is now in office is not the one. The President inherited that thing. Former Treasurer, Esan, was cooperating with the staff. The first one he signed, when it was taken to the table of the late President, he was angry asking why we should raise the cheque. We were deducting but he said I should not raise cheque.
NR: When you were director, you also served as Acting General Secretary, right?
Lebeke: I was to become Acting General Secretary when Joshua retired but suddenly they just retired me like that; but I am not going into that because that is passed.
NR: Did you draw their attention to the fact that they were violating the Pension Act when they were not remitting?
Lebeke: The attention of who?
NR: The attention of the President and the relevant organs of the union.
Lebeke: The GS was there, he was aware!
NR: I am asking because you were the Director of Finance.
Lebeke: I worked under the GS, and he knows.
NR: Did you officially draw the attention of the GS that the union was violating the Pension Act?
Lebeke: I said I raised a cheque for the three signatories to sign. The General Secretary signed, Comrade Esan signed, but when we got to the President, the late Comrade Khaleel, he warned me why I raised the cheque. Then the GS, Irapakob, said if that was the case, let us not deduct; but the President said we must deduct and he will not remit it to PenCom. So it is not my fault.
NR: When was the last time you raised a cheque and the late President refused to sign?
Lebeke: I can’t really tell; it is a long time.
NR: You said have copies of the cheques raised?
Lebeke: I don’t have the photo copies; ask the General Secretary, he has them. He is in charge of administration, he is aware, we worked together.
NR: You mean Comrade Irapakob?
Lebeke: Yes… What we were telling Comrade Khaleel then was that since we had not queued into the contributory pension scheme; because two months before I retired, I computed the pension deductions of some of our colleagues on the old scheme…
NR: Do you have a copy of that computation?
Lebeke: No, unfortunately I don’t have. Like I said, I computed based on the old scheme; we had been using the old scheme to pay. The issue started when I retired. When one Dele Oguntimehin retired, then they now imposed that rule on us; they refused to pay us.
Two months before I retired, I computed the payment and they were being paid based on the old scheme. Even some of the local governments had not started using PenCom, they refused. I computed my own and some of my colleagues based on the old scheme. The issue is that, since we don’t have any money with PenCom, use the old scheme to pay people who have retired and then remit to the PFAs those who are under the new contributory scheme but they refused to comply.
I served 32 years and they said I have 11 million naira for both gratuity and pension; pay me; that is all I ask. They said experts computed it and that it is eleven million naira.
NR: How much is the one you calculated?
Comrade Lebeke: I will send it to you; I gave it to NLC President. The President of the NLC is aware of our situation; I told him. Really, we are suffering; people are dying, I am sure most pensioners of NULGE have died as a result of non-payment of their pension. Let them use the old scheme to pay us, old scheme is better than nothing.
