The Chairman of Crown Insurance Brokers, Chief Felix Amadi, has said unreliable funding and dishonesty among government officials hamper the country’s pension laws to provide adequate retirement protection to retiree public servants.

Amadi, who spoke in an address at the launch of his book, Retirement in Nigeria (Management Approach), underscored the retirement challenge as a critical social problem in the country.

He said, “Let me emphasise that Nigeria is a country very strong in policy formulation. In particular, pension laws since independence have been richly designed to provide adequate retirement protection to retiree public servants. The problems have always been with fidelity in funding and the unscrupulous attitude of individuals in authority.

“Good policies of government have historically suffered. Even with the best of policies and implementation by government, individuals and employers have to make policies and implement them for retirement management.

“It is also found in the growing corruptive tendencies in public life promoted by the fear of old-age poverty. It is found in the absence of social security for the aged. Regrettably little or no correctional attention is being paid by the Nigerian public.”

Others present at the event were Group Managing Director, NEM Insurance Co Nigeria Plc, Mr Tope Smart; Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev Alfred Martins; Chairman/CEO, Zinox Group, Dr Leostan Ekeh; and Chairman, Open Media Communications Ltd, Dr Ernest Ndukwe, among others.