Members of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) have called on President Bola Tinubu to direct the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission to issue a circular implementing the new “minimum pension” in line with the recently enacted minimum wage law.
The NUP also urged the Federal Government to honor its commitment to pay retirees N25,000 as a palliative to offset the impact of the fuel subsidy removal.
Last year, the government promised to provide N35,000 to federal workers and N25,000 to retirees as wage awards for six months, starting in October 2023. While federal workers received their payments, and some states complied, retirees have yet to receive theirs.
As the wage award payments to workers have now ceased pending the implementation of the new minimum wage law, the NUP expressed concern over the delay in payments to pensioners.
NUP spokesman Bunmi Ogunkolade lamented that despite numerous appeals through the appropriate channels, the requests of pensioners remain unaddressed.
“We have written several letters to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and paid different courtesy visits to the ministry, all to no avail. We were told that our matter was pending due to issues within the ministry,” Ogunkolade explained.
The NUP has also taken their complaints to the National Assembly, meeting with the Chairman of the House Committee on Pension. Ogunkolade used this opportunity to appeal again for the wage award and the resolution of the “minimum pension” issue.
However, the NUP spokesman acknowledged that pensioners have received a 20% pension increment for the period from January to August 2024, and he expressed gratitude to the federal government on behalf of the union.
“We appreciate the federal government, led by President Bola Tinubu, for fulfilling its promise to implement a 20% increase in the monthly pensions of our members. This is unprecedented,” Ogunkolade said.
“We hope that the other two pending issues—the palliative payments and the implementation of the new ‘minimum pension’—will be addressed soon,” he added.
