When Government Cheats Its Own Workers -By Leonard Karshima Shilgba

Every month, thousands of federal workers in Nigeria watch deductions disappear from their payslips—contributions to the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) under the Pension Reform Act 2014 and to the National Housing Fund (NHF) under the National Housing Fund Act. These deductions are not voluntary; they are statutory. They are meant to secure the dignity of workers in retirement and to offer them a pathway to home ownership while still in service.

Yet, for some time now, the Federal Government has been guilty of a shocking breach of trust: the systematic failure to remit these deductions to workers’ Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) and Housing Fund Accounts (HFA).

This practice is not merely an administrative lapse—it is an ethical scandal and a legal violation. Section 11(3)(b) of the Pension Reform Act 2014 requires every employer to remit both the employee’s and employer’s contributions to the Pension Fund Custodian not later than seven working days from the day the employee is paid his salary. Similarly, the National Housing Fund Act mandates employers to remit contributions to the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria. Failure to remit is therefore a breach of the law, plain and simple.

But the consequences go beyond legality. By withholding these remittances, the government inflicts irreparable harm on its workers:

Retirees discover, too late, that their pension balances are grossly underfunded, condemning them to financial insecurity at a vulnerable stage of life.

Workers are denied access to NHF-backed mortgage loans, even though deductions have been made from their salaries in trust.

Both groups lose out on accrued yields—the compounded investment returns that would have accumulated had their funds been promptly remitted.

In effect, workers are cheated twice: first, by the illegal withholding of their contributions, and second, by the forfeiture of the investment income they should have earned.

And where is the National Assembly in all this? The legislature, constitutionally charged with oversight, has looked away as executive agencies and ministries flout the law with impunity. Committee hearings come and go, but no real sanctions are imposed. Reports are written, but accountability is missing. By failing to call the Federal Government and its agencies to order, the National Assembly has become complicit in this injustice. Silence in the face of systemic wrongdoing is itself a betrayal of Nigerian workers.

This crisis is not just about mismanagement of funds; it is about the moral contract between government and governed, which has been violated by the government. When government steals from its own employees, what moral right does it have to demand compliance with tax laws or statutory deductions from citizens? How can a government insist on discipline from the workforce when it itself defaults in the most basic obligation of trust?

The solution is clear:

Immediate Remittance: The Federal Government must remit all outstanding pension and housing deductions, with interest, into workers’ accounts.

Legislative Accountability: The National Assembly must summon and sanction defaulting agencies, not with empty rhetoric but with enforceable resolutions.

Transparency Mechanisms: Workers should be able to independently verify that deductions have been credited to their accounts within the statutory seven-day period; and where remittances delays happen, penalty payments by government should be transparently reflected enough for workers to know.

But government will not move unless it is compelled. That is why the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and other organized labour groups must rise beyond token protests. They must make this injustice a defining battle for workers’ dignity. Civil society organizations, the media, and the Nigerian public must join hands to demand restitution.

Nigeria cannot build a just and prosperous society while robbing the very people who serve it daily. The measure of a government is how it treats the labour of its people. On this measure, by withholding pension and housing remittances, our government has failed.

The time for excuses is over. Justice demands restitution. Nigerian workers must not wait silently. Their unions must act, and civil society must amplify. Together, the voices of the cheated must become too loud to ignore. Workers deserve better, not bitter treatment from the government and its institutions that should protect them.

© Shilgba