Retired federal workers under the Coalition of Federal Pensioners of Nigeria have issued a threat to stage a nationwide naked protest on October 6 if the federal government fails to pay their outstanding arrears and implement the N32,000 pension increment approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, the coalition’s national chairman, Mukaila Ogunbote, who also chairs the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Lagos State, said pensioners had given the government until September to fulfil its promises on arrears, increments, and palliatives.
He lamented that while workers and members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have received their approved palliatives and increment arrears, pensioners remain excluded.
“In October 2023, the President approved N35,000 for workers and N25,000 for pensioners as palliatives. Workers got theirs almost immediately, but up till now, pensioners have not received anything. Again, when the President approved N40,000 for workers, N70,000 for NYSC members, and N32,000 for pensioners in July 2024, workers and corps members were paid within two months, but pensioners were ignored,” Ogunbote said.
He described the development as an “injustice” and questioned whether pensioners were no longer considered citizens of Nigeria.
The union leader lamented the high death rate among retirees since the removal of fuel subsidy, noting that many pensioners earn as low as N12,000 to N15,000 monthly and cannot afford food or life-saving drugs.
“Since subsidy removal, NIPOST alone has lost 23 pensioners. People are dying daily because they cannot afford medication. Drugs that used to cost N2,500 now go for N8,000. Yet the government continues to deny us our entitlements”, he added.
Ogunbote said the planned naked protest was intended to expose the suffering of pensioners.
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“The reason why pensioners decided to go naked is to show the world what we are hiding under our clothes. Those using pipes to urinate, those with untreated lumps because they cannot afford surgery, will expose it. If by the end of September nothing is done, by October 6, pensioners across the country will storm the streets naked. We don’t make empty threats. We match our words with action,” he noted.
Supporting the chairman, the Lagos State chairman of the union, Fashola Oluwo, said it was “shameful” that elderly citizens who served the nation meritoriously were being neglected.
“The majority of us are 70, 80 years old and still struggling to feed. If not for our children, many of us would have died of hunger. We cannot buy anything meaningful with N10,000 or N15,000. The President gave directives, but we are not being paid”, Oluwo said.
Another pensioner, Mrs. Dupe Ogunniyi, who retired from Radio Nigeria, appealed directly to the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, to intervene.
“As mothers, we understand suffering. Our children are unemployed, our grandchildren are hungry, and we are sick. Many of us live on medication, yet we cannot afford it. We beg the First Lady to speak to the President on our behalf so that this little money can be released”, she pleaded.
The pensioners warned that the October 6 protest may attract international solidarity from Nigerians in the diaspora if the government fails to act.