They wake up each day unsure of where their next meal will come from; their wrinkled hands tremble not just from age, but also from hunger and despair, the consequences of poor and unpaid pensions. In this special report, Christiana Alabi-Akande & Sodiq Mojibola, who monitored the protest in Lagos, shared the ugly experiences of the country’s aged generation.
For many Nigerian pensioners, retirement is not the peaceful rest they envisioned after decades of service. Instead, it is a daily struggle for survival, with delayed payments, unexplained deductions, and broken promises draining whatever dignity old age should bring.
DevReporting gathered that after serving in various ministries and government parastatals, some pensioners now receive as little as ₦12,000 a month, an amount not enough to buy even a quarter bag of rice in today’s economy.
Following the current electricity tariff, N12,000 can’t pay for a month’s electricity, cannot refill a 12kg cooking gas cylinder, and is barely enough to cover transport fares for regular hospital visits. For many of these retirees, the money is gone before it arrives.
Seventy-three-year-old Mosunmola Oseni worked at the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) as a receptionist and was among those who were asked to retire in 2005 during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Before, the government was trying, but since last year, we no longer understand what has been happening. It was while the previous protest was ongoing that some of us got payment alerts, and since then, we haven’t heard from them again.”
Mrs Oseni’s prayer is that the government should pay her money so that she will not continue to be a burden to others. “As I speak to you, I cannot stand continuously for five minutes; I will fall. Yet, there is no money to buy my drugs regularly.”
“Life after retirement should ordinarily be sweet and peaceful, but the government is not making it so for us. Thanks to God and my children. But there is a limit to which I can pressure the children because they have their families too. Recently, I lost one of my children,” she wept.
Protests
Nigerian pensioners, under the aegis of Coalition of Federal Pensioners, have twice staged peaceful protests in 2025 to express their grievances and press home their demands.
On Monday, 11 August, at the entrances of the Ministry of Finance in Abuja and across states’ offices of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), as well as the offices of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), pensioners converged to stage peaceful protests.
Pensioners, including elderly men and women from Lagos and Ogun states stormed the PTAD office at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) in Lagos, chanting songs and displaying placards with inscriptions such as: “FGN, Please Restore Slashed Monthly Pension Allowances,” ‘FGN, Please Pay all Our Arrears, We are Old Enough to be Respected,” “Finance Minister, Wale Edun Must Go,” and “Pensioners are Dying Gradually,” among others.
While they accused Mr Edun of subjecting them to hunger and using their pension to trade, they called for his removal from office as Nigeria’s finance minister.
The coalition comprises Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL/MTEL), Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), University of Lagos (UNILAG), Federal College of Education (FCE) Technical Akoka, FCE Special Oyo, Federal Civil Service Pensioners, and University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan.
Others are University of Ibadan (UI), Federal University Akure, Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) Ogun and Lagos, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), National Orthopaedic Igbobi, Neuropsychiatric hospital Yaba, FCE Esiele Abeokuta, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, and Federal Neuropsychiatric hospital Aro.
But authorities at the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), an agency of the Nigerian government that is responsible for managing the pension and gratuity of federal government pensioners who are not part of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), has said the government has disbursed ₦5.12 billion in pension arrears to 90,689 retirees under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).
Pensioners’ sorrowful accounts
For many Nigerian pensioners, retirement feels less like rest and more like punishment.
Bridget Obieto did not mince words when describing life after retirement. The 65-year-old, who left the Voice of Nigeria in 2006 as Principal Studio Manager, described the situation for pensioners like her as “terrible.”
When they were paid in October 2025, she said their pensions were unexpectedly slashed. Letters to PTAD seeking clarification went unanswered, and even their lawyers received no reply. “They kept us in the dark,” she said.
Her frustration stems from what she called an unjust “harmonisation” process that saw their pension halved without explanation.
She said: “For instance, for someone collecting ₦50,000, they slashed it to ₦25,000 just like that. Harmonisation is never done that way. If they truly wanted to harmonise, they would find the cause of the differences and bring everything to unity. But no, they just sat in their offices and decided that those of us in parastatals should earn the same as those in ministries. It’s never done.
“N25,000 was approved for us as palliative. During the minimum wage, the president approved N32,000 across board, but nothing was done. Instead, at a stakeholders’ meeting, the PTAD head offered no clear plan to restore our pay but asked us to join the Federal Parastatals and Private Retirees Association or the Nigerian Union of Pensioners. When did it become compulsory to join an association?”.
Amid routine delays, Mrs Obieto said she receives just over ₦30,000 a month in pension, less than half of her last salary of about ₦70,000. On Friday, 9 August, she said two months’ arrears were suddenly paid after news of a planned protest.
If given the chance to speak to President Tinubu, she said she would tell him that “People are speaking badly about his government because he put people who are not capable in office.”
“Under former President Buhari’s administration, pensions were paid promptly, and any salary increases for workers were extended to retirees. May his soul rest in peace. I hope Tinubu will change,” she added.
The disappointment, according to Mrs Obieto, runs deep, not just from the delay or loss of income, but from what she described as a lack of respect for those who gave decades of service.
In broadcasting, she explained, “There were no public holidays as staff were called in at any time, regardless of their marital status, a reality that led to many broken marriages. Despite giving our all under such demanding conditions, we are now poorly treated,” she said.
My pension can’t buy my drugs – 89yr-old pensioner
Meanwhile, 89-year-old pensioner, Christopher Orji, who retired in 1987 as a postmaster and has served as Secretary of the Federal Civil Service Pensioners since 2013, has decried the neglect of pensioners by the government, lamenting that their meagre monthly pay cannot cover basic needs, let alone medical expenses.
“We don’t understand this government; they don’t take pensioners seriously. They want us all to die so that they can take the balance of our money. We have written a series of letters to PTAD without a response. They always promise and fail. Many have died. What they are paying me as pension cannot even buy my drugs, which cost over N50,000 monthly.
“Before I left service, I was employed by the British in 1962, and I was paid 12 pounds, 11 shillings as salary then. It was enough for me at that time; in fact, I do not use half of it. But now I am being paid N17,731 as pension, not until about a few months ago, they brought it up to N24,000. I retired in 1987, and since then, I have been suffering.”
Mr Orji recalled scavenging and doing menial work to put his children through school. “I have seven children, can this money pay for three textbooks in a university? I was lucky that I was able to do other things. I had to do scavenging work and other things to ensure my children graduated from school. If not for them today, I would have been a carcass. So, what about people who do not have children to care for them? They are dying because what we are receiving is nothing to write home about, yet the government withholds it,” he lamented.
“We entered service with black hair, now we suffer with white hair”
For Elizabeth Akinoso (née Idowu), who worked as an auditor at the Nigerian Law School for decades, old age was meant to be sweet and peaceful, but instead, she lamented that life is now a daily struggle.
She said, “The federal government said it would increase the pension, but it didn’t. We are suffering; there is not enough food to eat. If not for my children, it would have been a different story entirely.
“A health scheme should be put in place for pensioners. It hurts a lot that after we have served, we are left to suffer when we are supposed to sit back and enjoy. We entered the service with black hair, and we are to enjoy with white hair, but that is not the case. Please help us beg the government.”
How do we survive in today’s Nigeria with N12,000
Also, Abiodun Olatunde, a retired Senior Technical Assistant at the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, said some pensioners still get as little as ₦12,000 a month.
“Payment of the 20 per cent promised by President Tinubu started in January last year, and they shortpaid a lot of people. I didn’t get mine until around September, and when I looked at the money paid, it didn’t align with what they started paying in July. So a lot of atrocities are going on.
“As I speak to you, a lot of people have not been placed on the payroll. To be candid, N32,000 is too little because there are many people who are still receiving N16,000 and N12,000 as a pension. Add N32,000 with N16,000, and look at the cost of renting a house now, cost of transportation. The money is too little and not enough for anybody to survive, yet the government won’t pay it on time. This is not good. The federal government should consider the pensioners, especially the elderly among us. We are not asking for too much, we just want to be alright.”
Pension not enough to eat – Umoh
Mike Umoh became one of Nigeria’s youngest pensioners when he left Radio Nigeria in 1995 at just 30. Decades later, Mr Umoh, who is now a grandfather, gets only ₦21,000 a month as pension. “A plate of food in the market now is nothing less than ₦2,500. How far will ₦32,000 go? The government should please add to our monthly pension so that we can, at least, eat.”
“As I speak with you, I have a bandage on my knee, there’s no money to buy drugs. Everybody is talking about Wale Edun. Rumour has it that this man wants to contest for the governorship election and he wants to use pensioners’ money for campaigns,” he alleged.
For him, the real pain is the feeling that the federal government is playing with their lives. “They keep our money and release it only when we threaten to protest. We served this country, and we deserve better.”
Pensioners like Akinoso, Olatunde, and Umoh expressed that the struggle is not about luxury but about dignity, survival, and the hope that the country they served would not forget them.
Another pensioner who spoke during the protest said some pensioners have died waiting for their money. She said about 30 per cent of workers who were disengaged in 2006 are yet to receive their monthly pension, not to mention the arrears.
“Many have died without receiving any kobo. This is very unfair to us after serving the nation for decades. When we were in service, from the little we were earning, we trained our children, most of whom are graduates today, but there are no jobs for them to nurture us at our old age,” the pensioner who craved anonymity said.
Pensioners’ demands
According to the National Chairman of the Coalition of Federal Pensioners, Mukaila Ogunbote, their demands include payment of N25,000 palliative for six months; addition of the N32,000 approved by President Bola Tinubu in 2024 to their monthly pensions.
Mr Ogunbote, who is also the chairman of the Lagos NIPOST chapter of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), said they are demanding a refund of the ‘back-end computation’ deductions allegedly made by PTAD in 2023.
He recalled that in October 2023, the Nigerian government announced a ₦25,000 palliative for all pensioners, but “up till now, we have not received it… it’s six months now.”
He noted that while workers were paid to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal, pensioners were left out.
Also, in July 2024, according to Mr Ogunbote, the government approved a ₦32,000 flat-rate pension increment, but the adjustment is yet to reflect in their monthly payments, while arrears remain unpaid.
According to him, PTAD often releases a token portion of arrears whenever protests are announced. Many pensioners, he added, still receive less than ₦20,000 monthly, an amount he described as “nothing to write home about” given the current economic realities. “The ₦32,000 increment, though small, would make a significant difference.”
Mr Ogunbote said the government had also approved a 20 per cent pension award for junior staff and 28 per cent for level 14 officers and above, but payments have been irregular. He said some pensioners got it without it reflecting in their monthly pension; others had it reflected but saw deductions instead of increments. He also alleged that in December 2023, pensions were slashed without explanation, affecting about 80 per cent of beneficiaries.
He accused PTAD of paying monthly pensions selectively, with some organisations receiving theirs while others are left out. Some pensioners, he noted, are still owed arrears dating back to 2014, despite completing verification exercises, adding that even the harmonisation promised since 2015 is yet to be implemented.
The prolonged non-payment, he said, is taking a toll on the health of elderly pensioners, many of whom cannot afford medication. “We will continue to protest until we get positive results from the federal government,” he vowed, calling for the removal of the finance minister and the accountant general.
He added that several letters, text messages, WhatsApp notes, and emails sent to the authorities have gone unanswered.
PTAD responds
The Liaison officer of PTAD, Cashmir Audu, who addressed the protesting pensioners, explained that President Tinubu had ordered the payment of a N32,000 increment.
He acknowledged the pensioners’ right to protest, saying, “We have repeatedly said that the N32,000 increment was approved last year, but unfortunately, we don’t have funds”.
Meanwhile, PTAD, in a statement by its Head of Corporate Communications, Olugbenga Ajayi, on Monday, disclosed that the federal government has disbursed ₦5.12 billion in pension arrears to 90,689 retirees under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).
The statement said the disbursement of the funds to the pensioners across the four pension departments has been finalised, saying the move was in line with the government’s commitment to clear outstanding pension liabilities.
A breakdown in the statement showed that 8,626 pensioners in the Customs, Immigration, and Prisons Pension Department (CIPPD) received ₦276.03 million, while 9,681 pensioners under the Police Pension Department received ₦619.58 million.
PTAD also stated that 12,773 retirees in the Civil Service Pension Department received ₦408.74 million, while 59,609 retirees in the Parastatals Pension Department received ₦3.81 billion.
President Tinubu had also, on 9 August, approved measures aimed at improving the welfare of pensioners under the DBS. An earlier statement issued by Mr Ajayi noted that PTAD had previously settled arrears related to the first pension increment of 20 per cent to 28 per cent, which he noted took effect in January 2024.
Mr Tinubu also endorsed the adoption of a proposed pension harmonisation policy, which will be incorporated into the 2026 pension budget, while health insurance coverage for all DBS pensioners was approved to ensure access to essential healthcare services.