President Yar’Adua is working hard to actualize Nigeria’s quest at joining the league of 20 developed nations of the world by the year 2020. One of the common factor amongst these developed countries is the presence of a viable social security scheme. Social security engenders patriotism which is a scarce commodity in our country today. What will actually make a man die for his country if not social security benefits? Servantleader News spoke with Dr. Enukora Okoli, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the 48-years-old Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, whose new mandate is to administer Social Security for all Nigerians. He spoke with Edward Dibiana, Tony Egbulefu and Cyril Ezeani.

The general Yakubu Gowon Committee recently submitted its report on a comprehensive social security policy for Nigeria. Why has it taken the country so long to think along this line and what are the specific issues addressed in the policy?

In fact to be honest, it takes people to make things happen and this government should get credit for even doing something. It has taken so long because there has been lack of political will to bring about the recognition for social security and an enabling policy for the citizens. So, there has been that lack of political will and if you reflect on our history, the military was not accountable to the citizens, nobody has even bothered about social security because we all know that social security is all about welfare of the citizens. And what is government about, other than the security and welfare of the citizens. So, through out the military rule and obviously for not being a democratic dispensation, they weren't disposed to doing anything that will please the people until the 1999 Constitution came about. At least you can see the influence of consultation that led to the enactment of that constitution in the sense that within that constitution, the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy within the constitution recognizes the need for government to provide shelter, road, education and all that for its people. But unfortunately, that clause in the constitution is not justiceable, in other words, it is not enforceable, it is just a recommendation. So being just a recommendation there's not a lot anybody can do about it. So, this government should take credit for doing it 49 years later. What if they hadn't done it? But we need political will to sustain what has now been established. As they say, the genie is out of the bottle it can't go back inside. Therefore, the entire population is now looking forward to this government to deliver on social security which they have in fact brought out in the public domain, after all, its government that appointed the national working committee on social security, so, they have demonstrated that willingness to do something about it and it's the same government that has now received the report of the Gowon committee, so people are expectant. It has taken long, but most importantly, something is happening.

What are the specific areas and issues the government wants to touch with this social security package?

 

One important recommendation is to make social security an enforceable right of the people, to promote a social security charter and include it in our constitution. That is one cardinal outcome of that exercise. Another thing is for the government to study the recommendations of the committee and issue a White Paper, approving the policy and then go on to direct that the social security bill is drafted, which will subsequently go through the National Assembly. It is a long road to travel, but we have taken the first necessary step of that journey, lets first and foremost accept the policy: the Gowon Committee report, then issue a White Paper and direct for a bill to be drafted which goes to the National Assembly to be enacted into law. So that's the policy, but then within the policy are things that will benefit Nigerians. Within the recommendations, I can talk about the nine contingencies of social security, which in fact are well captured in our corporate profile. Social security has nine contingencies approved by the ILO (International Labour Organization) which we are a member nation. Among the contingencies there are: Pension Scheme, we already have that running, although its contributory at the moment, there is the non-contributory aspect for people who have not contributed and are old, but need to be looked after, there is a recommendation in that policy for government to cater for such people. Then there's medical, that is covered under NHIS. Again that is contributory, but how about people who are not able to contribute? So, its in our recommendation that something be done for such people as well. There is Unemployment Benefit Scheme, which of course will raise uproar, if we start recommending for people to be paid cash handouts for unemployment, yet this recommendation is understandable because there's high unemployment level, but people must understand that benefits should not always be seen only in cash, it could be benefit in kind, where you create enabling environment for people who are looking for work to access opportunities or vacancies or even go into their own private enterprises, its all part of job creation and efforts to address unemployment, so unemployment is one of the contingencies in social security, and we addressed that in the policy. Then Employment Injury is another critical contingency under the social security. Right now as we speak, people are dying in their work places and in construction sites, oil rigs, on the roads (people employed as drivers). What happens when they get injured? Nobody compensates them, if they're lucky, they get a cash lump sum and before you know it they are disengaged, may be because their accidents resulted in a serious handicap, where they can no longer work and their employer willy-nilly just gets rid of them. We have proposed a scheme called “Employment Injury Scheme”, which will not only compensates people who get injured in their workplace but will also rehabilitate them. This bill will replace a very old bill called “Workmen Compensation Act” that was made in 1942 and was amended in 1987, that was based on commercial insurance formula, where when an employee gets injured the insurance companies are never happy to pay and will want you to prove that you were not negligent as the cause of the accident and of course you will be hard pushed to prove that you were not negligent and as a result they don't pay but with this new scheme all that will be a thing of the past.

It is assumed that nobody in his right mind will knowingly get injured in other to get compensation and I call to mind here what Sule Lamido, the governor of Jigawa State, said when he started social security scheme where he was paying N7,000 to the handicapped, and physically challenged people. People complained that he was wasting money and he said to them, go and become physically challenged and I will pay you N7,000. He said, “if you think being handicapped or physically challenge is the best way to be, then go and become one, and come and collect N7,000 a month and see how it feels.” So that is one of the schemes we are recommending and fortunately the Federal Government has already forwarded the bill for this “Employee Compensation Scheme” on May 18, this year, so its on its way to the National Assembly and hopefully, that bill will be passed into law by December. So from next year, people who get injured in their work place will be well looked after and again another spin-off of that bill is that people will now be more proactive and productive. They will take risk in the work place, knowing that if they get injured they will not be abandoned, but right now very few people will take any risk for anybody because they worry about what happens to them. So that is another contingency.

Then there is sickness. Unfortunately, we cannot pay people sickness benefits. We are not recommending that, but people can access the medical care and recover and go back to work, so you can see that we have been very careful in what we are recommending because its important that whatever scheme you want to run, it has to be affordable, has to be sustainable, otherwise, you might as well not start because there is no point raising people's expectations only to dash it a few months or years later, and social security is dynamic so its something that is reviewed continually and going through our documentation you will see the history of social security which started in Germany and the rest of the world has caught on with it and here in Nigeria, we are even trying to catch up with some African countries who are miles ahead of us in terms of social security provision. It might also interest you that recently we paid a courtesy call to the First Lady, where we appealed to her to lend her name and reputation as someone who cares for the less privileged to the social security programme that we are proposing and she was delighted. She said she will consider it seriously if we made it formal and we have made it formal and we are waiting for her response, because she herself has demonstrated social security awareness. If you look at all the things she is doing, the youth programmes she is running and the cancer programme she is running and also that for women you will see she has the right disposition, she is humane to care about those things, she could have been doing economic projects that will benefit the middle class and upper class, but no, she is focused on the less privileged people. I can talk forever and forever but it must be known that social security is essential and in fact the Seven-Point Agenda will not succeed without social security because “Wealth Creation?” How do you create wealth if you have not worried about productivity and that productivity will be enhanced by what we just talked about with employment injury compensation. We will see the knock on effect. So social security is cost cutting, and it cuts across the whole economy. Without social security there will be restiveness, there will be high crime rate, there will be corruption. Why do people take inducements? Its because nobody will provide for them if they have not got it and they worry about what happens when they retire. They want to prepare and provide for the rainy day by dipping their hands in the till. If there was social security you can be sure there will be less corruption and less crime with a more stable, secure environment, and there will be increased productivity, there will be harmony and people will live longer. Right now, how long do Nigerians live? The average is about 45 years which is a shame.

If by December the bill on employee compensation is passed, what changes would follow for the Nigerian worker, say by January?

 

Well, if the bill is passed by December, which is very realistic, and we are very hopeful about that, then from January, the employee compensation scheme will at least start and this employee compensation scheme is non-contributory on the part of the employees. The employee don't have to contribute a penny, it's the employer who will contribute one per cent of the employee's emolument into the scheme. This scheme will generate a lot of funds. We have done actuarial projection. It will generate a lot of funds, which will go into mass housing. I have not talked about that, NSITF plans a mass housing scheme on the back of the employee compensation scheme. The funds that will be generated by employers will not just be sitting in the bank, it will have to go out immediately to start creating social security provisions, including housing, shelter and we are committed to building affordable houses and what we mean by affordable houses are houses that will not cost more than N700,000, which I believe a clerk in an office can afford with a mortgage, which they can pay off in five years time. And such housing will be built with local raw materials, mud bricks, which in fact is even cooler. In fact, when we were talking with the First Lady, she made a very pertinent observation that even the blocks they use today in buildings houses are so porous and that is why buildings are collapsing, so the mud bricks are even more solid and cooler in terms of temperature. So these are how we would keep the cost of housing very low. An average house wouldn't need electricity sockets all over and lights every where, because these are the things that increase cost of housing, every bathroom won't need a big bath. So when you remove all these unnecessary facilities you see that you can easily bring down the cost of housing. Then, there are concepts about having communal bath, which in fact, up to the 1980's was common in England, where people go, have shower and dress up and go their way. So you don't have to have all these things in your house. We are committed to building affordable housing for the poor. Then, youth opportunities programme. We have scheme for that, to nurture entrepreneural skills. The idea we have is that people should grow up, thinking about employing themselves, and creating employment rather than being employed. Once we move away, over a period of time, from the mentality or orientation about looking for work, and employment, it will do us a lot of good. That is where Ghanaians have really done so well. An average Ghanaian before leaving school is already thinking if he is to go into employment, how long he will stay there before branching out to own a venture, that is what we would like to see here. So we have that programme for the youths. Then we would like to encourage the good old student loan scheme, which used to be available. Although that will have its challenges in terms of people not paying back, it's a laudable programme if administered well. Some would say, you cannot run a social security scheme if you don't have a data base. But would you want to let people die or continue to suffer while you are collecting data base before you do something? Can't you do them simultaneously? I don't buy that argument that you have to have everything in place before you run a scheme, but there is that database challenge and its surmountable as well, with political will. So come January, when this “Employee Compensation Scheme” kicks off, Nigerians' compensation for injury in workplace will be seamless, effortless, and automatic. Then the housing scheme will take off as well, and we have got a property company here at NSITF set up to address that. And in terms of health we also have Pro-Health. So we are taking part in cascading or implementation of healthcare, regulated by NHIS. Our own Pro-Health scheme is doing quite well. We are going to the informal sector to be providing for the less privileged, and we will be targeting phase groups, where people can come together and pull their risk. I once joked that if we can cover even malaria or typhoid for most Nigerians, then the problem would have been half solved, because they are killing a lot of Nigerians on a daily basis. So we have been working very hard at NSITF and we just need that political will to back us up and deliver on our mandate to provide social security to all Nigerians.