PENSION REFORM: CAN MY PENSION BENEFITS BE SECURED THROUGH MY LIFE TIME

CAN MY PENSION BENEFITS BE SECURED THROUGH MY LIFE TIME

INTRODUCTION

All over the world, people worry about their future and studies have shown that social security generally, particularly pensions constitute a large chunk of this worry for many folks. People even already start worrying as soon as they start work but not many of them prepare for the future they worry about because there will always be the temptation to believe that your working life is spread before you and it stretches over a whole lot of thirty five years or for even longer if you are in the private sector or self employed.

But experience has shown that it is a tough world and the best laid plans can go awry, there is always the malignant hand of fate and in a country as ours where life expectancy is now ridiculously as low as forty nine years or less, where not many people can find jobs and those who find are poorly paid and more often than not with aged parents and siblings to cater for, then the worry of the average Nigerian worker about his future and his pension benefits about quadruples compared to his contemporaries in developed economies where most things work and there are numerous safety nets to cushion the effects of unemployment and other worries that is a man’s life. 

In our country therefore, pension benefits have become a very topical issue because it does get dire when a man retires from active service and there is no pension to fall back on and where there is, it is often inadequate and you may have to wait for months and in some cases years to receive what should be a monthly stipend to keep body and soul together.

This paper therefore attempts to answer the question posed “Can my Pension Benefits be Secured through my Lifetime?” by looking at pensions generally and its historical origins, pension administration in Nigeria, the need for reform, the Pension Reform Act, 2004 and the Security of Pension Benefits therein.

DEFINITION OF PENSION AND A HISTORICAL EXCURSION

A common definition of pension is that it is a form of deferred compensation of a worker, a retirement plan to provide secure income for life. Pension fund therefore can be defined as savings indirectly accumulated during active working years for investment to yield good returns for use on retirement. It is a pool of resources accumulated from the employer and employee with the aim of providing financial security for employees when they finally leave paid employment.

By the provisions of the Pension Reform Act, 2004 pension fund means;

“an investment fund within the Pension Scheme which is intended to accumulate during an individual’s working life from contributions and investment income, with the intention of providing income in retirement from the purchase of an annuity or in the form of programmed withdrawal, with the possible option of an additional tax free cash lump sum being paid to the individual”. 

In the case of a pension fund, during the active working lives of such employees, agreed or statutory amounts are deducted from their salaries and paid into a fund. The fund managers use their expertise to choose the best and safe windows of opportunity in which to invest the fund with a view to maximizing returns on the investment. The funds could be invested in bonds, equities and real estate amongst other investment vehicles. The fund often held by portfolio managers (institutional investors), is a major source of investible capital in the advanced economies of the United States of America and Europe.

The earliest record of payment of public sector pension dates back to the Roman Empire times when in 13BC, Emperor Augustus Caesar paid pension to the Military and loyal civil servants. This was to secure the active loyalty of troops who were then the sole determinant of power in the realm and further conquest. The pension was first paid from Augustus’ personal funds and later taxes of 5% were levied on inheritances and 1% sales tax to meet the pension liabilities of the emperor. Three  thousand denarii’s was paid to Legionnaires after 20 years of active duty and 5 years in reserves. This had the effect of making beneficiaries instant millionaires by the standards of the time.

The history of public pension in modern Europe started with disability compensation to soldiers. A good example was the scheme established by the British parliament in 1592. By the 18^th Century all major European nations maintained some form of pension for their officer corps.

However, these pension schemes were not very popular because of the perceived bias of the schemes for the military. The primary aim was to keep the military in total subjugation and commitment to the leaders of the time as military might guaranteed state power and sovereignty at the particular time in history.

Military service at the time was seen as gratifying only and essentially in the service of the crown and family and not necessarily for the good of the State and her citizens. This is not hard to understand as emperors of the time had always equated themselves with the state as epitomized by Louis XIV of France (the Sun King) who proclaimed, “I am the State and the State is me”.

The scathing description of the scheme therefore by the English writer, Samuel Johnson as “pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country” is indeed instructive. 

In modern times, the United States public pension system, otherwise known as U.S. Social Security (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) is a social security insurance created by the Republican Government of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1937 during the great depression, following the stock market crashes of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Retirement benefits payment is the largest component of OASDI. The scheme was unfunded though as payment of retirees were financed by payroll taxes of current workers depending on workers earning records at and age of retirement.

The first payments were made in 1937 to 53, 236 beneficiaries and by 2004, the beneficiaries had risen to 47.5 million with cash benefit amounting to $492 billion. The current tax level of 12.4% is equally shared between employer and employee. Since 1982, the payroll tax receipt, investment and other income of OASDI consistently exceed benefits payments and other expenditures.

PENSION IN NIGERIA

Pension schemes were introduced into the public service of Nigeria in the early years of the 19^th Century as evidenced in Pension Proclamation No. 14 of 1901 of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate and the Pension Ordinance No. 4 of 1902 of the Colony of Lagos. Until 2004, there were a myriad of enactments that regulated pension schemes in Nigeria. They include the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 in Sections 173 and 210, the Pension Act Cap 346 Laws of the Federation 1990, the National Provident Fund Cap 273 Laws of the Federation 1990 and the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund Act, 1993 amongst others.

The schemes, which were the products of these enactments, were anything but harmonized; each operated separately with the result that many people were not covered by any scheme. Moreover, the schemes were not funded. The NSITF that was intended to cover the gap for the private sector at least was thought to provide small benefits. It therefore became obvious that the schemes and pension administration in Nigeria generally needed reform if they were going to be meaningful to the workers and constructive to the economy.

TRIGGERS FOR PENSION REFORM IN NIGERIA

As it became evident that the unfunded pay as you go pension system was unsustainable due to short term budgetary constraints, demographic pressures, aging and dependency ratios, inefficient public systems, untrustworthy governments, fragmented public sector system and corruption, the Government of Nigeria made different efforts at different times to reform and improve pension administration in Nigeria. Committees set up under the auspices of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria, National Council on Privatization, the National Insurance Commission and all other stakeholders unanimously agreed that the system needed reform.

PENSION REFORM ACT, 2004

The present effort in the Pension Reform Act, 2004 is more particularly concerned that all employees come under a uniform and workable scheme that will be meaningful to the people and the economy. The Act provides that:

“There shall be established for any employment in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a contributory pension scheme for payment of retirement benefits of employees to whom the scheme applies under the Act.”

The Act further provided that the pension scheme shall apply to all employees in the public service of the federation, Federal Capital Territory and the private sector.

The objectives of the Scheme are:

(i)           To ensure that every person who worked in either the public service of the Federation, Federal Capital Territory or the private sector receives his retirement benefits as and when due;

(ii)          To assist improvident individuals to save for old age; and

(iii)            To establish a contributory scheme with a uniform set of rules, regulations and standards for the administration and payment of retirement pension benefits.

The Act provides for the category of workers to be covered thus:

“The scheme shall apply to all employees in the Public Service of the Federation, Federal Capital Territory and the Private Sector:

(a) In the case of the public sector, who are in               employment; and

(b) In the case of the Private Sector, who are in      employment in an organization in which there are five or more employees.’’

Other specific features of the Act relevant to our discourse today are:

·        A contribution of 15% minimum of the total emolument payable on behalf of each employee. The minimum employer contribution rate is set at 7.5% while the maximum employee contribution rate is 7.5%. However an employer may decide to fund the scheme wholly for the employee. In addition, employees can make voluntary contribution.

·        Opening an Employee Retirement Savings Account where any funds so contributed will be credited monthly.

·        Pension funds/assets are to be privately managed and invested by professional fund managers.

·        Regulation of Pension Fund Administrators/Custodians under uniform law and regulations and establishment of the National Pension Commission to regulate, supervise and administer the Scheme.

·        An employee will not be able to make any withdrawal from his account before attaining the age of 50 years, except in the cases of mental or physical disability, and employment terms and contract.

·        The accumulated amounts can either be used to buy  an annuity or be invested with an asset management company under a phased withdrawal arrangement.

The objectives of the new scheme can be broadly categorized into Social and Economic objectives with the understanding that the social objective should override the economic objective. Concerns about the safety and security of the funds should take precedence in investment decisions for it is only when workers retirement benefits are due and there are enough pension funds/assets in the scheme to match them that pension benefits can be secured.

SECURITY OF PENSION BENEFITS

Security of pension benefits was one of the major reasons the old inefficient and unfunded pay as you pension scheme was scrapped and replaced with the Contributory Pension Scheme. The Pension liability of the Federal Government ran into billions of naira and many private sector Schemes where they exist at all were poorly managed and at times the funds brazenly looted and there were no consequences because there was no regulator as we now have in the mould of PENCOM.

Can my pension benefits be secured through my life time? Pertinent question.

If pension benefits will be secured through a man’s life time, I dare suggest that the place to start addressing that security is the Pension Reform Act 2004 which is a radical departure from the old unsustainable scheme. The employee also has a lot to do to ensure that his pension benefits are secured through his life time. The following issues will be key to securing pension benefits for a life time.

Contributory Scheme

The fact that the new scheme is contributory at a prescribed ratio should help address the issue of lack of funding in the past. The Government will no longer have to make inadequate budgetary provisions and the private sector employers can no longer dip their hands into the pension fund/assets of their employees as they are no longer in control of the funds which is now held by the Pension Fund Custodian and invested by the Pension Fund Administrator.

Retirement Savings Account

The Act requires every employee to open a RSA with any PFA of choice into which retirement benefits will be credited. That way an employee can monitor the remittances of the employer, monitor the account itself and he can demand regular/periodic statement of account from his PFA. He can even discipline his PFA as he has the power to change his PFA at least once in a year.  

Accessing Retirement Benefits

The statutory age at which one can access his pension has been put at fifty (50) years so even if one retires earlier, he will not be able to access the retirement benefits in his RSA. He will not be entitled to make any withdrawal from the retirement savings account before attaining the age of fifty (50) years.

There is equally the provisions for programmed withdrawal which will help in ensuring that the retirement benefits are stretched over the employee’s lifetime as he can only withdraw a lump sum from his RSA provided that the amount left after that lump sum withdrawal shall be sufficient to procure an annuity or fund programmed withdrawals that will produce an amount not less than 50% of his annual remuneration as at the date of his retirement. 

Minimum Pension Guarantee

The PRA 2004 makes provision for a minimum pension guarantee by providing that all RSA holders who have contributed for a number of years to a licensed PFA shall be entitled to a guaranteed minimum pension as may be specified from time to time by PENCOM. 

If government will shoulder the fiscal responsibility for the MPG as is done in other jurisdictions such as Chile and the U.K then the MPG will further secure a retiree’s pension benefits through his life time.

Compliance

Since the passage of the reform Act, compliance with its provisions have been a major challenge especially in the private sector. The public sector does not have such a challenge as participation is compulsory for all public employees. In the private sector, organizations with at least five employees are required to implement the Contributory Pension Scheme. However, compliance by the private sector has remained a challenge due to lack of comprehensive database of employers of labour in the country, which limits the extent of enforcement by the regulator. Similarly, employers themselves are not willing to comply with the provisions of the Act as they erroneously believe that it is an additional cost to their Organizations.

If all the business organizations covered by the Act comply with its provisions, then it will go a long way in securing pension benefits. It is further suggested that the coverage of the Act be expanded to include all employees whether they are employed in an organization with only one employee or otherwise. Why restrict it to organizations with 5 employees or more?

The extension of the coverage will help address the difficulties faced with the informal sector. Because the informal sector in Nigeria lacks a coherent structure and has an unwieldy composition, its integration into the new scheme is very herculean and difficult but if some issues like coverage, contribution rate, mode of collection and enforcement are addressed then the informal sector can be brought in and more Nigerians covered thereby securing their pension benefits for life.

The National Pension Commission, The Pension Fund Administrator and the Pension Fund Custodian

The reform Act created the National Pension Commission and charged it with the responsibility for matters relating to the regulation, supervision and effective administration of the Scheme and for matters connected therewith. PENCOM has wide and varied powers to administer the scheme, license and revoke the licenses of erring PFAs and PFCs and in addition to set guidelines and prescribe regulations from time to time as may be necessary for effective administration of the Scheme.

The reform Act conscious of past failures removed the management of the funds from the erstwhile managers, creating the PFAs and PFCs to manage and hold the funds respectively. This dichotomy has the advantage of further protecting pension benefits as the one who holds the funds in trust cannot manage and the one who manages cannot hold the funds. With  good faith the PFAs and PFCs can act as checks on each other to protect pension funds and assets.

The Act further imposed the duty to keep proper books and accounts, the duty to protect pension funds, the duty to report fraud, the duty of loyalty on the PFAs and PFCs to further protect the funds and ensure retirement benefits.

Investment of Pension Funds and Assets

One of the most important ways to ensure that pension benefits are secured is to protect the funds and assets subject of the Scheme and make sure they are not frittered away by either fraudulent and incompetent fund administrators or as a result of bad investment decisions. Since one of the major policy considerations behind the reform Act is the desire to provide for the worker in old age or during ill health and to secure his financial wellbeing, any mismanagement of the funds may mean a failure of the scheme. 

To prevent this possible outcome, the Act provides for relatively safe and less volatile areas of the Nigerian economy where the funds may be invested with the objective of safety and maintenance of fair returns on investments to the beneficiaries.

Pension funds and assets are therefore to be properly invested in authorized investment such as bonds, bills and other securities issued or guaranteed by the Federal Government and the CBN, bonds, debentures, redeemable preference shares and other debt instruments issued by corporate entities and registered on the Stock Exchange, ordinary shares of public limited companies listed on a Stock Exchange, Bank deposits and bank securities, Real estate investment amongst others with the obligation to keep the  pension funds and assets safe.

The Act further requires the PFAs to establish Risk Management Committees and Investment Strategy Committees, which Committees shall also ensure that the PFAs comply with the provisions of the Act. In addition they are to employ a Compliance officer who shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with the provisions of the Act and the internal rules and regulations made by the PFAs.

Corruption and Fraud

Whatever we do, if corruption is not addressed, most things in our country will fail and pension benefits may not be an exception as we have seen with the National Provident Fund and the National Insurance Trust Fund. The effect of corruption on pension fund is being currently dramatized before the nation with the ongoing police pension probe at the National Assembly. At the last count, over Fourteen Billion Naira had been looted from the police pension fund. And this happened right in the office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. 

Corruption has become so pervasive in Nigeria that the apex court, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, had this to say about it in the year 2002:

“corruption is not a disease which afflicts public officers alone but society as a whole. If it is therefore to be eradicated effectively, the solution to it must be pervasive to cover every segment of the society”.

“corrupt practices and abuse of power can, if not checked, threaten the peace, order and good government of the federation or any part thereof”.

 

The question of fraud should also be addressed, PENCOM has the responsibility to regulate and monitor the PFCs and PFAs who hold the funds and place investments respectively and it must discharge this responsibility efficiently and effectively to forestall the ever present possibility of embezzlement of the funds. In this regard, we must learn from the experiences of even more developed countries in safeguarding pension funds/assets. 

PENCOM and indeed all stakeholders therefore ought to heed the warning of one Ugo Okoroafor who wrote in the Champion newspaper in 2006 thus:

“… as a warning though, it should be noted that the experiences of even more developed countries in safeguarding pension assets give cause for concern. Just as examples, Robert Maxwell, who introduced scientific printing in Britain and in the process set up a vast media empire that included the famous Mirror Group Newspapers, embezzled the pension assets of his workers worth hundreds of millions of British pounds sterling. He did this right under the nose of British regulators…”. Okoroafor wrote further, “the ongoing Enron saga is also another example. In this case, hundreds of millions of pension dollars were invested in Enron’s derivative projects which evaporated into thin air when the company went burst”. 

CONCLUSION

We circle back to the question with which we began this discourse, “Can my Pension Benefits be Secured through my Lifetime?”.

To this question and to many of life’s pertinent questions, there may be no clear cut answer because many factors and variables may and do affect the outcome of many of man’s ventures but if we will do what is right, if our laws will be strictly enforced and if we will cut corruption and the monumental waste of public funds by say 50%, then the odds that our pension benefits will enure and be secured through one’s life time will considerably be much higher.

The Pension Reform Act 2004, which we believe is wise and good law barring a few proposals for amendment seeks to ensure and guarantee secured pension benefits but this is only possible if all stakeholders resolve to make it work. PENCOM, the PFAs/PFCs and the retiree/beneficiaries must do what is required of them and the retiree/beneficiary must seek to understand how it works, monitor his PFA, seek PENCOM regulations and also understand a bit of the Market, sharpen his financial literacy skills and where possible consult and seek opinion of experts for after all it is his money and his future that is at stake.

Stephen O. Obajaja Esq. is a Partner at the Lagos Law Firm of Fountain Court Partners.

STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA

Fountain Court Partners

Block 36B, LSPDC Estate

Ogudu Road

Ojota – Lagos.

08052066172.

DO NOT INVEST PENSION FUND IN ELECTRICITY GENERATION

DO NOT INVEST PENSION FUND IN ELECTRICITY GENERATION

I read in the Punch of Monday, March 26, 2012, a news item on page 20 captioned “FG to invest pension fund in electricity generation” and I shuddered.

According to the leading national daily “the Minister of Power, Prof Berth Nnaji, dropped the hint in London on Sunday when he signed a $10bn agreement on behalf of the government with General Electric to build 10,000 megawatts power plants in the country. He said the government would tap a small percentage of the national pension fund to finance some of the power projects”.

The Minister said “What the pension money is meant for is investment, but you invest in more secure instrument and this project is one of them” the paper reported. The Minister continued further, “pension fund is a secure fund so you cannot play around with people’s retirement money, so it is very important that everyone understands that the plan is not to just take the money and invest in projects that are risky”. The Minister explained further that infrastructure, including road and transmission lines, were guaranteed income earners “because charges accruing from them can fund the borrowed money from the pension fund” the paper further reported.

To start with, by the provisions of the Pension Reform Act, 2004, the National Pension Commission, the Pension Fund Custodians and the Pension Fund Administrators collectively determine where the funds can be invested, percentage of investment in particular equities, how the funds are invested, monitored and managed, so there are no sitting funds anywhere the Federal Government can commandeer for the investments in power plants where some corrupt officials and contractors are primed and waiting to loot the funds. The Minister will do well to counsel us on what happened to the funds of the old Railway Workers Pension Scheme. The Minister must be dissuaded from believing that pension fund is a slush fund somewhere to be disbursed at the whims and caprices of the Federal government.

It is obvious that the project, however much the Country needs it and however good intentioned the Minister is, is not secured one bit as the Minister would have us believe. ‘Cabal’ is a word loosely bandied around these days but cabals they are and so cabals I will call them. The cabals who will not let the power sector work are too entrenched, too powerful and too set in their ways for us to take for granted that this will work; that it will not be business as usual. Obasanjo’s government spent billions of dollars and no power plants were delivered, the Ndidi Elumelu led Committee wasted everyone’s time probing the power projects and today, whatever happened to the massive funds meant for the power projects we are none the wiser. This Government reached this kind of understanding with General Electric in the past and nothing came of it. So what exactly is now new. The last we heard from the hallowed chambers of the Federal judiciary in Abuja, all corruption charges brought against Ndidi Elemelu as a result of the botched power projects had been dismissed as there was ‘no evidence of wrong doing against the lawmaker’.

We have played too much politics with the power sector for anyone to now be convinced that anything has changed and that the Federal government will now deliver on its reform agenda in the power sector. Every aspect of our national life is rotten and putrefying. The recent Capital Market probe which unwittingly pitted Honourable Herman Hembe, the Chairman of the House Committee on Capital Markets against the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms Arunma Otteh revealed as much. The one before it, the Oil Subsidy probe in the National Assembly led by Honourable Lawan Farouk revealed much more. Corruption is the only thriving industry in Nigeria and a multibillion dollar industry at that.

The police pension probe at the National Assembly takes the cake. How anyone can mindlessly plunder pension funds meant for the security of aged men and women who have served this nation in various capacities beats me. Every time you think it cannot possibly get worse it actually does get worse in Nigeria. There is now no low level imaginable to which we have not sank. At the last count, over Fourteen Billion Naira had been looted from the police pension fund. And this happened right in the office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. Worse still, Abdulrasheed Maina, the man appointed to cleanse the Augean stables it turned out only came to help himself.

The Minister of Power must stay his hands where pension funds are concerned. The gut wrenching and mind boggling sums bandied around in corruption cases these days does not help the Ministers cause. Good a thing the Minister alluded to the fact that “pension fund is a secure fund so you cannot play around with people’s retirement money, so it is very important that everyone understands that the plan is not to just take the money and invest in projects that are risky”.

Unfortunately however, the problem is that this particular venture of the Minister’s is very risky, there is no guarantee that the next government will not cancel the power projects and that some contractor or civil servant will not make away with the contract sum. Imagine if the N 5.2 Billion Naira over which Elumelu was arraigned and has now been cleared of any wrongdoing were pension fund? If the project were risk free why is General Electric only willing to invest 10/15 per cent in equity and will the Minister please tell us who the genuine private sector businessmen are who ‘will bring the balance’ in the circumstances.

The Minister and indeed the Federal government must not be allowed to play around with people’s retirement money. The National Pension Commission cannot allow the Minister a sniff of the pension funds for now. Let the power plants be built first and the Commission can then consider investing whatever fraction of the funds there is that will not endanger the scheme. The Commission must realize that the objective of safety and security of the funds override that of investment and other ancillary/incidental objectives for it is only when workers retirement benefits are due and there are enough pension funds in the scheme to match them that we can really say the 2004 Act and the scheme established thereunder has succeeded.

Investments such as the Minister is canvassing can wipe out the pension fund and endanger our new and celebrated pension scheme which as it were is still not on sure footed ground yet. The political and economic risks involved in Nigeria’s power projects and sector reform at this stage in history are too onerous for us to wager in pension fund into the bargain just yet.

Stephen O. Obajaja Esq. a Partner at the Lagos Law Firm of Fountain Court Partners is the Secretary General, Pension Lawyers Association of Nigeria (PLAN).

STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA

Fountain Court Partners

Block 36B, LSPDC Estate

Ogudu Road

Ojota – Lagos.

08052066172.

THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN NIGERIA’S REVOLUTION

THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN NIGERIA’S REVOLUTION

The recent agitations in Nigeria over the unconscionable increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit (petrol) led by Nigeria’s umbrella body of workers in the public sector, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), with ample support from numerous civil society organizations and several other amorphous bodies in which Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latterrain Assembly and the Save Nigeria Group he helped convene in the difficult days of the Late President Umaru Musa Yar Adua administration took on a lead role got me thinking following the bitter attacks on the fiery clergy man both within and outside Christendom for the role he courageously and selflessly played in the occupy Nigeria rallies.

The attacks on the pastor though numerous and expressed in diverse languages and forms have a thread running through it all; to wit, that Bakare being a servant of God Almighty, and a respected shepherd had no business and ought not to partake in civil disobedience and more mundane is the charge that he is still bitter being the Vice Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change which lost to the Peoples Democratic Party and incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the last general elections. Dispensing with the latter charge is easy and simple. The pastor merely did his duty to his nation as an opposition figure in Nigeria. What did the Government expect? What is the work of the opposition if not to oppose Government policy, offer an alternative route and ultimately seek to replace the Government in the event that it falls from power. And to oppose this Government on the principled pedestal that the unjustified recent hike in the price of petrol will bring untold hardship to the majority of Nigerians who have roundly and unequivocally rejected same is to obey God. Will these virulent critics do well to remember that the voice of the people is the voice of God still!!.

On the earlier point of criticism which has always fascinated me because the Church in Nigeria does not seem to have a well defined and calculated strategy to intervene in the secular world when it is right and just to do so. The Church in Nigeria does not seem to realize that there is as much prayer can do. The Church does not realize that to help berth a new nation that will respect the rights of citizens, rein in corruption and provide the opportunity for their millions of adherents to thrive is obedience to God’s word. The Church has not factored in the fact that If you pray for a million years, if a man is unable to find work and sustenance he will not be a true Christian for long. This is why we must appreciate the kind of work the likes of Bakare puts into nation building. For faith without works is dead. It profiteth nothing. Many church leaders in Nigeria will only rather remain in their comfort zones because Apostle Paul has admonished them not to be conformed with the world; that they live in this world but are not part of the world. They will gleefully tell you that the believer will not be evenly yoked with the unbeliever, but pray, have Christians (true or false ones) escaped the misery the successive kleptomaniac Governments in Nigeria have unleashed on the citizenry?

The Church in Nigeria now sadly reminds me of the brothers Apostle James admonished in his letter thus: “Dear brothers, what’s the use of saying that you have faith and are Christians if you aren’t proving it by helping others? Will that kind of faith save anyone? If you have a friend who is in need of food and clothing, and you say to him, “well goodbye and God bless you: stay warm and eat hearty,” and then don’t give him clothes or food, what good does that do? So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good works is no faith at all – it is dead and useless”. Does anyone notice how the Church in Nigeria today only seemingly mouth the several clichés like “it is well with you brother”, “the Lord will meet you at your point of need”, “your life will not remain the same”, “sister the man God is preparing for you will show up at the appointed time” and many other such annoying and meaningless tripe without more or is it just me? As things stand now, the impression one gets is that the Church and many Church leaders are only interested in the tithes and offerings of the faithful. This ought not to be so.

It is high time the Church in Nigeria and her leaders left the comfort zone. It is time to get into the trenches as Bakare has always done because the Church is an immense and powerful tool for change in our World, especially in a society like Nigeria. The Church and her leaders in our skewed society has great influence and affluence which must be harnessed as a force for good in society and in doing this, the Church in Nigeria has great and worthy examples. Western civilization was built on Judo – Christian principles even though much of this has been eroded and the nations of the West are no longer just Christian nations, whatever they once were. It is true that many of their Cathedrals have become empty monuments to Christianity but it cannot be denied that many mighty men of the clergy and even the laity have risen in the past to demand change and affect the cause of history thereby transforming their societies profoundly and leaving legacies that are until this day a shining beacon to the good the Church and men of God can do in society. Men like the German, Martin Luther of the old European Church. American preacher and civil rights leader of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Great leader of the Catholic Church of recent memory, the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.

King’s life is particularly inspiring in this regard. He confronted tyranny, segregation and poverty on the streets of America (in the slums of the South and in the glittering streets of the North). The civil rights movement he led awakened the conscience of America and today his life, struggle, writings and speeches inspire still.

Bishop Eivind Berggrav of Norway, a Lutheran Bishop known as the primate of the Church of Norway and remembered for his unyielding resistance against the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II even though he was under isolated house arrest during most of the war, battled the evils of Nazism while remaining loyal to God and his beliefs. The renowned Bishop wrote “when a Government becomes lawless and acts with arbitrary despotism, the result is a demonic condition, that is to say, the Government is Godless. To obey such a satanic government would be nothing short of sinful…In circumstances of this kind, we have as a matter of principle the right to rebel in one form or another’’.

Irish Carmelite Bishop, Donal Raymond Larmont, the Catholic Emeritus Bishop of Umtali (now Mutare), Zimbabwe opposed the racist policies of the then Rhodesian Government of Ian D. Smith and its efforts to establish a racially segregated State on the South African model. He similarly wrote on the duty of the Church and Christians to actively seek the good of Society by works and action thus: “Have not those who honestly believe that they fight for the basic human rights of their people a justifiable claim on the Church for the Spiritual administration of the Clergy. How can one counsel loyalty and obedience to your ordinances when to do so is tantamount to giving approval to the manifold injustices you inflict? To keep silence about one reign of oppression in order the better to combat what you alone consider to be another, is wholly unacceptable’’.

These powerful men of faith and humble servants of God I believe have fittingly pointed the way in which the Church in Nigerian should go though I appreciate why the Church may be reluctant or is unable to willingly do this at this time in history but the Church in Nigeria will do well to consider these words of Reginald Stackhouse in the book “Christianity and Politics” that “On the one hand, it is clear that the Church has a mission to the political part of the world. On the other hand, there are reasons why many Christians hesitate to undertake their mission. Obviously, the solution to the dilemma is not simply to choose between two wrongs, but as it were, to go through the horns of the dilemma”.

If the Church in Nigeria will go through the horns of the dilemma as one man, Bakare has done, then the Church will take a lead role in the Nigerian revolution which was partially ignited at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park (named in honour of that indefatigable and indomitable lawyer, human rights crusader and freedom fighter of distinction) Ojota, Lagos whilst the protests tagged ‘’occupy Nigeria’’ lasted. The Church is the body of Christ on earth. It must therefore stand for the truth and stand for the political and economic wellbeing of her millions of adherents for you may not any longer divorce those from spiritual wellbeing. These are very dark times in the life of our nation and the Church as the harbinger of truth and life must seek to shed light in the nook and dark crevices of our nation.

The struggle is non violent and the Arab spring has shown that the weapon of non violence which was effectively used by Mohandas Ghandi in the liberation of India and which was a potent weapon in the hands of the American Civil rights crusaders led by King is still relevant in our world today. I believe the Church in Nigeria can wholeheartedly and with no sense of betraying her Christian faith identify and actively partake in Nigeria’s revolution for as King wrote describing one of the several Civil rights marches “There is nothing wrong with marching in this sense. (Yes, sir) The Bible tells us that the mighty men of Joshua merely walked about the walled city of Jericho (Yes) and the barriers to freedom came tumbling down’’. Let us march if we must march with the Church in Nigeria in the forefront for if the Nigerian State collapses, if it goes down in ruins, there will be no Church, there will be no adherents and there will be no Church leaders.

The Church in Nigeria cannot remain silent and indifferent in the face of monumental corruption, deprivation, poverty and disease. The Church must go beyond rhetoric’s. The Church must fight corruption in the body of Christ and in Society. The Church must provide both material and logistics support to the cause of Nigeria’s revolution. The Church can no longer acquiesce in prayer alone for Bakare also prays and we all pray. If all we did was pray and go about our businesses without the occupy Nigeria rallies at Ojota then chances are that we will all be buying petrol at One Hundred and Forty One Naira (N 141, 00) or more today. We would not have been able to send them the message that our country has changed, that we will be back to occupy and take back our country one day soon.

Stephen O. Obajaja Esq. is a Partner at the Lagos Law Firm of Fountain Court Partners.

STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA

Fountain Court Partners

Block 36B, LSPDC Estate

Ogudu Road

Ojota – Lagos.

08052066172.