BBC documentary exposes pension corruption

A new investigation by BBC Africa Eye into pensions in Nigeria has uncovered corruption in the retirement system.

According to BBC in a statement, the five-month investigation began when Africa eye was approached by Obaji Akpet – a reporter/producer from Cross River State (Southern Nigeria), “who told us that his mother, a nurse, did not start getting her pension payments as would be normal, when she retired and that she was being asked to pay cash directly to an official working in the pension department before they would pay out her pension.”

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Via a hidden camera, Obaji filmed a civil servant accepting money for herself, and suggesting senior managers in the department also needed to be paid before the pension paperwork would go through.

The BBC Africa Eye revealed that despite these payments being made Obaji’s mother’s pension didn’t arrive until five months later, a delay that caused her extreme financial problems and left her feeling like she was “in hellfire” and “no more a human being.”

Africa Eye also uncovered a list of over 1000 people in Cross River state whose pensions had been stopped because the state had decided they were no longer alive.