Ambode, senior citizens and the social contract -By Ayo Badmus

In a short spell, the Lagos State Gover­nor AkinwunmiAmbode has developed a distinct public persona. Far from hug­ging the headlines, he walks the talk by implementing policies within the nexus of the social contract, which guides the re­lationships between the government and those who put them into office. A key in­terpretation of the social contract here is of course the protection of rights. A good example of the protection of rights is the recent release of N11 billion to pay off the pension liabilities to our deserving senior citizens, which have been in arrears since 2010 to date.

Recently, the Head of Service, Mrs Folas­hade Jaji said the state governor had directed that the sum should be used to pay the pen­sion liabilities of the Lagos State Govern­ment mainstream retirees as well as the retir­ees in local governments.

Discharging the obligations of the state government to its senior citizens has to be put in a framework. For as callous as it sounds, the government of Lagos State actually had a get-out clause through which it could have dodged its obligations. Lagos State has not benefitted from the ‘bailout’ and could have used this fact as an excuse. On the contrary, in a lot of states the headline has centred on the issue of unions, senior citizens and the populace issuing ultimatums to state govern­ments about their pension arrears. It is really quite commendable for this reason to see La­gos State swimming against the tide in a sea of despair.

And sadly it has been a sea of despair in most of the states. One does not have to try that hard to find an excuse for the non-discharge of obligations within Nigeria’s skewed “quasi-federalism” whereby the state governments are fiscally constricted. Deciding not to use this excuse, Ambode on the contrary, has decided in a brutal fiscal climate to clear the obligations to the senior citizens. Paying of N11 billion here is there­fore not meant to just grab the headlines.

It is part of a clear strategy to discharge the obligations to the senior citizens by paying the pension liabilities of Lagos state govern­ment mainstream retirees and the retirees in local government areas. Ambode’s interven­tion in clearing the backlog is commendable. This is because Nigeria has no real social safety nets and the hitherto entrenched com­munity of helpers through the extended fam­ily network has broken down.

Senior citizens as pensioners in reality constitute a vulnerable strata that can easily slip into absolute poverty without govern­ment intervention. A key index here is that they spend much of their money on food and are therefore highly susceptible to a rise in food prices. This is why the Ambode inter­vention has a direct bearing on the larger eco­nomic picture.

Headline hugging cannot replace a clear strategy, as Mrs Jaji very sensibly pointed out: “The development is part of efforts put in place by the present administration to find a holistic solution to the issue of payment of pension entitlements to retirees under the pay-as-you-go pension scheme which was discontinued in April 2007, as well as out­standing accrued pension rights due to retir­ees under the contributory pension scheme.” This is a component of a short or immediate term plan for pension payments to ministries, departments, agencies and parastatals, in­cluding local government areas and SUBEB, which will be made monthly commencing from August 2015.

To further walk the talk, Jaji was emphatic that the efforts being made by the Lagos state government were the outcome of painstaking deliberations by the public service pensions office, the Lagos state pensions commission, the Head of Service and the Governor to “reduce, if not totally clear” the outstanding liabilities due to retirees of the Lagos State public sector.

To further demonstrate his intent, once again fulfilled his promise of paying out­standing retirement benefits to retirees every month till the backlog is cleared by approv­ing another payment of 2.1 billion naira to 525 retired public offices for the month of September 2015. Director-General, Lagos State Pensions Board, Mrs Folashade Onanu­ga, disclosed this while speaking at the 19th batch retirement benefit bond presentation ceremony held recently at the NECA House CBD Ikeja.

Once again emphasis was placed on Gov­ernor Ambode’s determination to ensure that entitlements are promptly paid to all those who had retired from the service. She re­vealed that the governor has also promised that the retirees will henceforth enjoy free health services in all state hospitals as ar­rangements to provide them with retiree identification cards for presentation at the hospitals.

A key factor here is that the Lagos State government obviously believes that the pen­sioners should be accorded their due respect by the pension fund administrators and an­nuity service providers as the money being paid to them is their right not a privilege. It is worth reiterating that a total number of the 676 retirees collected their bond certificates worth a total sum of N2.4 billion last month. This shows that the Ambode government be­lieves that a social safety net has to be con­structed for senior citizens.

Governor Ambode can begin to construct very much needed social safety nets because he has anchored his economic template on fiscal rectitude and restructuring the cost of the machinery of government which has al­ready admirably led to cost savings of N3 billion a month. We expect to see more in this direction whereby cost savings from waste, inefficiency and duplication are redirected towards the building of infrastructure and the construction of social safety nets. This is vi­tally needed in a burgeoning mega city.

What Ambode is doing is very much with­in the progressive tradition. The progressive position in Nigeria has since the 1950’s had a central thrust, which is to attain macro-economic stability as the pathway to social justice. T

his school of thought is credited with the tremendous social advances made particu­larly in the western region in that era. This is important, for we have since become so fix­ated on “growth without development” that we have moved away from the central ten­ancy of government in a democracy, which is operated within a social contract.

Governor Ambode is clearly re-balancing this, starting with catering to the needs of our senior citizens. The treatment of the senior citizens as a former United States of America Vice President Hubert Humphrey once ob­served accurately mirrors the level of civili­sation of a society. We must therefore thank Governor Ambode for his civilising mission and urge others to follow suit.

Government can only call upon the citi­zens to do their own part when it is demon­strably carrying out its own part of the bar­gain. Ambode is unambiguously doing this by discharging his obligations to the senior citizens in a civilised way which ensures that they will live their retirement with dignity, in security and contentment. In return there is a gain to the government, which means in large measure that the public service will be reinvigorated. There will be greater com­mitment in the full knowledge that they will not be abandoned in their old age. The rest of society will also know that they are deal­ing with a caring government. It is a win-win situation.

Badmus, an economist lives in Gbagada, Lagos