hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... people in areas where the indian variant of coronavirus is spreading, are urged to get a covid vaccination. having vaccinations are really important measures that we have i suppose in the tool box for controlling outbreaks. a gaza city tower block used by international media has been destroyed by the israeli military. they claim it was housing hamas military assets. hamas was using that building. its military intelligence had assets in that building that were part of the hamas war machine. meanwhile in london, thousands of pro—palestinian protesters marched to the gates of the israeli embassy. wreath laying services have been held across the uk and around the world to mark the centenary of the royal british legion. leicester city lift the fa cup for the first time

as youri tieleman�*s stunning long—range goal earned the foxes victory over chelsea at wembley. now on bbc news, nigeria's pensions system is in a mess. it leaves some elderly people penniless after decades of hard work but it grants some politicians generous retirement packages. you work hard, behave responsibly, save into a pension scheme and have a happy retirement, right? wrong. after decades of saving into government pension schemes, when it's time to collect, many nigerians across the country get nothing unless they pay. but while some retired people sink into poverty waiting for their pension, others are raking it in. he is entitled to 300%

of his basic pension. he is entitled to four cars, replaceable every four years. one man. i'm yemisi adegoke, and i want to find out why politicians are awarding themselves huge pensions while ordinary people are having to fight to get anything at all. every year in nigeria dozens of nurses, teachers and other government workers retire, expecting to court swap their salary for a pension to support them in old age. my mother was a healthcare worker for 27 years and paid into the pension plan. we started looking into claims of corruption around pensions when we were contacted

by obaji akpet, a reporter from cross river state. when she retired last year she should have started receiving her pension, but she didn't. like many nigerians would do, i had to step in to support her financially while she waited. she reached out to the pension office in calabar to find out why, and she was told she would need to pay some money to get her papers moving. because she was anxious about her pension, my mother paid 6000 naira. and then, in october, 0baji got in touch with the pension office. he too told us he was asked to pay a bribe of10,000 naira,

and that is when he got in touch with us. we asked him to secretly film any further interactions he had with pensions officials. bye — bye. bye. a month later, he was asked to come to calabar by one of the officials. her name is angela etta. so far my mother and i have made two sets of payments and we still don't know when she will get her money. according to angela i need to pay another person in the department. phone beeps. hi, mrs etta. i am off to see angela again,

this time wearing a hidden camera. angela tells me the money i have already paid will help move things along. i still don't have a definite date or time when my mother will get her pension, but angela thinks she has done a good job, and wants another payment. she describes my visit to her office as a visit to a temple, and she wants an offering. no—one actually uses the word "bribe", but it seems that payment is expected. payment to a government worker whose job it is to pay out pensions.

so 0baji and his mum have now made three payments to angela, amounting to 21,000 naira. but apparently it is not enough. five weeks later, and with his mother's pension four months late, angela calls 0baji who is now in lagos, asking for more money. it's for someone higher up, she claims. we have no idea if there really is another higher up person who needs to be paid, or if it's just more money for her. how much exactly does he want?

what is the guarantee that mum is going to have her papers processed and then she's going to be payrolled... bring it, bring it, bring it. when we speak to margaret injanuary, one month later, she still hasn't received her pension. i feel so bad that my mum still hasn't received her pension yet. after paying so much, having to go through all the process of bribing her and all, like she demanding so much from us, nothing.

delays in getting your pension or having to pay to get it aren't just problems in cross river state. they are national. we have heard stories of pension corruption at all levels, and across nigeria, that pension funds are being emptied, leaving nothing to pay people with. and in fact, in 2019, 400 billion naira was owed to pensioners across the country. we then heard of another way retirees are being denied their money. i am on my way to meet a man who's dead, according to the state. so tell me a little bit about what you used to do for a living. when 0gah gabriel retired in 2000 he received his pension regularly until 2020, when it suddenly stopped. cross river state had suddenly decided mr gabriel, like over 1000 other people in the state, either didn't exist, or was dead.

i franka akpeke inok... to get his pension he would have to convince the auditor—general, mrs franka inok, seen here at her inauguration, that he was alive. despite his medical challenges, 0gah gabriel made the trip to the auditor—general�*s office. even though he only had photocopies of some documents he was told he needed, he was confident. another reason he was confident was because he has known the auditor—general since she was a little girl.

according to him, the auditor—general was furious. and when his wife spoke up to support him, it made her even angrier. and mr gabriel isn't the only retired person who claims they were denied their hard earned pension, because mrs inok took offence. so each time you went to the office you have to carry all this with you? mrs ekpenyong ewa worked as a nurse for 22 years. she had been living off her pension for 15 years when suddenly in may last year, it stopped.

like mr gabriel, she had to prove to the auditor—general, she was alive by going back to calabar again and again. she says six months after her pension stopped, she finally got to speak to the auditor—general. but the auditor—general was not about to reinstate her pension. we heard stories like this over and over again,

from all across the state. pensioners old, sick and out of money, waiting for the auditor—general. eventually they had had enough, and on 3 november 2020, they started a protest. once the protest has quietened down, mrs ewa says she was taken

into a room full of people, including the auditor—general. this apology was filmed by someone

in the room and put online. it's outrageous, hearing the story of the 62—year—old woman who spent 22 years working for the state government, being denied her pension and being intimidated by the auditor—general and security personnel. fake or �*ghost�* pensioners are a real problem in nigeria. adding fictitious names to the payroll is one of the ways money is stolen from government funds. sometimes, there are more fake pensioners than real ones. the state that cannot have 3,000, 4,000 pensioners, have 10,000. jerry uwah is a finance and businessjournalist, fmailiar with the problem of pension fraud. but he doesn't think the culprits are ordinary people like mrs ewa and mr 0gah. what happens is that

somebody will add names of non—existent pensioners. that one goes to him — the people at the top. it's not something at the grassroots. the people at the top. they will pay those ghost pensioners immediately, and the money goes into their pockets. it's not something a clerk can do, because it would be discovered. it's right up there. so, how can states tackle the problem of ghost pensioners? hello, nice to meet you. kolawole 0luwadare is the deputy director of serap, organisation that advocates for more transparency in government. he says technology should be available to identify them. if we have an id system that is robust and covers everyone, why can't payments be done electronically? why do they have to come physically, coming great distances? coming to those staying in remote areas. and these are very poor people, by the way.

but even if you don't have advanced technology, it still shouldn't take weeks, months, or years to work out who is alive and who isn't. i'm in 0kele, which is a community in yala, where last october, this list was published with over 300 names of people declared dead, and as a result, their pension payment stopped. 99% of the people there are still alive. the local community leader takes me to meet some of those from the list of dead people. come out. good afternoon, mr cletus? so, your name is mr efika cletus lafin? yeah. and that's your name here? so, your name is on this list, sir,

that says you are dead. that's the list. i'm not dead, madam. i can see that. i can see that you're alive. mr cletus laughs. so, this is your national id card? and this is your name, on this list of people that are supposedly dead, this is your id, confirming you are who you say you are. mr cletus stopped getting his pension injune, last year. so, how have you been surviving? he has been to calabar five times. two weeks?

so, you'd spent two weeks in calabar, even though you don't have anybody there? you sleep outside? welcome. good evening. i can see that your name is here on this list. yes. it says you are a ghost pensioner, but here you are, alive. yes. id card, voter's card. she shows us her voter card, it appears to be the same person who is alive and standing in front of me. but it's been nearly two years since she last received her pension. while some pensioners are struggling just to get the money they're owed, there is a group of nigerians who expect a bit more from retirement — politicians.

because nigeria is run on a federal system, each state gets to decide a lot of its own laws, which is handy — if you run the state. like the former governor of zamfara state, abdul�*aziz yari, who sanctioned a lawjust two months before he retired, which would give him quite a pension. he's entitled to 10 million naira every month as �*overhead costs�* — overhead of what? nobody knows. he's entitled to 300% of his basic as pension. and yet, this man whose gratuity and entitlement has been paid immediately after he left office, there's 10 billion naira in pension arrears. so, although the state might not have the money to pay ordinary pensioners the ten billion naira it owes them, there always seems to be money to pay the politicians. the current government of zamfara

eventually repealed this law, but he's not the only ex—governor to benefit from preferential pension laws. like lagos did, the governor is entitled to two houses, one in lagos, one in abuja in a location of his choice. that's what the law says. so, if the governor is greedy enough to demand a house at banana island, buy a land there at $4 million per plot, then he's entitled to 300% of his basic as pension, he's entitled to four cars, replaced every four years. one man. and that's in some states. that is too much for one man. he's spoiling thousands of pensioners, three years of pensions that have not been paid. protests recently erupted in enugu

state, and the house of assembly tried to pass a law that would give ex—governors and their deputies and their wives an outlandish amount of money and perks for their pensions. chanting: solidarity for ever! cars, medical bills, even funerals costs are covered. according to one estimate, it would amount to 900% of the basic annual salary of a serving governor. serap has been trying to find out through the courts to find out exactly how much politicians get, claiming these laws are illegal. so far, only one state has been willing to disclose any information on their pension law, laws which should be available to the public. it is not only unlawful, it is immoral. this huge hoarding of the finances and the budgets of the state. monies that could otherwise have been spent on roads, or water, education, or health. this doesn'tjust affect older

people, it affects everybody. if you're working today and paying into a pension scheme, there is no guarantee you will get your money when you retire. it's just basically taking what should be for the people. it's sad, really. it really is sad. the whole of nigeria should be concerned. it is too much. it is far too much. not many politicians are willing to speak out against their pay. how are you? but senator shehu sani is openly critical. what a typical state governor takes home, as a pension, can settle the wages of over 3,000—4,000 teachers. so, why should the state dedicate such kind of money to former governors? back in calabar, where we started our investigation, mr gabriel, mrs ewa,

mrs akpet, and mrs ngboro are finally receiving their pensions, though not all have been paid the thousands and thousands of naira they lost due to their pensions being illegitimately withheld for so many months. despite years of promises of change from the very top, we found the pension system still hampered by incompetence and corruption, causing devastation in the lives of elderly and vulnerable nigerians. we put the findings of our investigation to mrs angela etta, mrs frank inok and governor ben ayode of cross river state and asked for their comments. they have not responded. efika cletus died shortly after we finished filming. he had not been paid any of his pension.

hello, there. the weather is very unreliable for outdoor plans at the moment — i'm sure you don't need me to tell you that. sunny skies overhead one minute, the next, a drenching downpour comes along, and some of the downpours on sunday really will be very heavy indeed with hail and thunder mixing in. this is how saturday turned out. we had a band of patchy rain that drifted northwards across parts of northern england, northern ireland, getting into the far south of scotland. to the south of that, we returned to the mix of sunshine and showers. some of the showers were very heavy indeed. they will fade to some extent as we head through tonight, although east anglia and northern

england will keep cloud and patchy rain. but notice through the early hours before dawn on sunday morning, the showers really start to pep up once again down towards the southwest of england, and that is a sign of things to come because this area of low pressure during tomorrow is going to take up residence right on top of the uk, and that means the air will be very unstable. those shower clouds will be able to bubble up very quickly and very readily, and some of the downpours will be very heavy indeed, getting going first thing across the southwest of england then spreading across other parts of england and wales, northern ireland, southern scotland. some of the showers heavy, possibly thundery with hail and some fairly strong and gusty winds. the strongest winds overall will be found down towards the south of england and the channel islands, particularly for coastal areas. top temperatures in the best of the sunshine between 11—16 degrees. not too many showers through the day across the northern half of scotland, but even here, there could be the odd hefty one through the late afternoon

and on into the evening. some of the showers will fade through the night, but that is not the end of this unsettled weather story because low pressure will still be close by on monday. the centre of the low drifting a little further east, so it may be that the showers become focused across eastern areas. further west you are, there is a decent chance that you won't see too many showers. it could well stay dry, for example, across parts of northern ireland and western scotland with some spells of sunshine. top temperatures during monday, again, no great shakes —12—16 degrees. and the same sort of weather pattern continues throughout the coming week with showers or longer spells of rain, some of the downpours very heavy, possibly thundery. temperatures below normal for the time of year, but there will still be some sunny spells.