The warning on Tuesday by the immediate-past Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), that the ugly sights of veterans protesting non-payment of entitlements must not be allowed to fester, should not be taken lightly. Irabor, who is also in the middle of the storm, was spot on when he noted that the unfortunate and reprehensible state of affairs could engender feelings of resentment among serving personnel.

Irabor said this in a paper at the Armed Forces Celebration and Remembrance Day 2025 Lecture and Art Exhibition, organised by the Defence Headquarters in Abuja. The lecture was titled, ?Celebrating the Armed Forces of Nigeria in National Development.?

He said: ?The ugly sights of veterans? protest, though contrary to military discipline and ethos, owing to lack of payments of entitlements, must not be allowed to fester. This could also potentially engender feelings of resentment in active duty personnel, especially seeing the despicable treatment meted out to veterans. This shameful act should end forthwith with the payment of all accrued entitlements.?

The former CDS lamented that the plight of servicemen and women wounded or disabled leaves a heart-breaking tale in the minds of everyone, adding that this could indirectly demoralise serving personnel. It could even make veterans to go into depression for possible regrets of patriotic services rendered to the nation.

To redress this, he suggested that special support could be organised for better care of wounded and disabled active-duty and retired military personnel.

?I am aware of the on-going construction of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder facility and the Invictus Games project. It is very essential that these projects are completed, fully furnished, well-equipped and properly manned, sustained and well publicised for the benefit of the Armed Forces. The projects will also improve the perception of the federal government and the nation in general, as a grateful people for patriotic services rendered,? he observed.

Ex-servicemen barricaded the entrance of the Federal Ministry of Finance headquarters penultimate Thursday in Abuja, protesting non-payment of their entitlements. The pensioners arrived at the ministry?s gate as early as 7:30 am with sleeping mats, chairs, canopies, and loudspeakers playing music, insisting that they would not leave until their demands were met.

They accused the federal government of not paying them a 20 percent to 28 percent salary increment from January to November 2024, among other benefits. The leader of the protesting retirees, Colonel Innocent Azubuike (retd), while addressing journalists after they locked up the entrance of the ministry, said non-payment of their entitlements had caused untold hardship for them.

Azubuike said the Defence Ministry had concluded its part and was ready for payment, noting that all necessary approvals had been given. He said that cash-backing of those approvals is what remains, reiterating that they would continue to remain on the protest ground until their demands are met by the government.

According to him, their demands include the owed palliative payments from October 2023 to November 2024 and the payment of an additional N32,000 to their pensions. Others are refunds of deductions made from the pensions of medically boarded soldiers and bulk payment of the Security Debarment Allowance, etc.

The retired senior officer said they had waited for 11 months for their dues before resorting to protest and stressed that despite assurances that their entitlements would be cleared in November, they were informed that the payments could not be made due to a lack of cash backing.

?We were told to exercise patience and assured that our long-unpaid entitlements would be settled in November. November is gone, and there is no indication of when this will happen because it?s a matter with the Federal Ministry of Finance and not the Ministry of Defence?, he lamented.

It is instructive that the plight of the ex-servicemen is not peculiar to the military but symptomatic of the pitiable conditions plaguing the generality of pensioners in the country, especially at the sub-national level. In its quest to cure the manifest absurdities and incongruities in the administration of pension in the country, the federal government formulated several policies and legal frameworks, including the Pension Reforms Act 2004, establishing the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) and the National Pension Commission (PenCom).

Unfortunately, many of the 36 state governments appear to be lethargic in reforming the pension system, leaving their pensioners enmeshed in the harrowing situation of not receiving their pensions for upwards of nine months.

Blueprint is, therefore, in sync with the former CDS Irabor. Given the ravaging insecurity in the land, which has proved intractable for over decade, nothing should be done or be seen to be done to engender resentment among serving personnel. The backlash of a frustrated corps of ex-servicemen is the undesirable creation of a robust recruitment avenue for insurgent groups like the Boko Haram and Lakurawa, among other criminal elements disturbing the peace and stifling the socio-economic development of Nigeria.

While the swift response of the ministries of finance and defence to the demands of the ex-servicemen is commendable, as many of them started receiving bank credit alerts on the venue of the protest, we urge the Military Pension Board (MPB), PTAD, PenCom, the ministry of finance, and other key agencies in pension administration in the country to ensure the prompt payment of pensions and other entitlements to pensioners across board. Indeed, the labour of our compatriots who meritoriously gave their youthfulness and vibrancy to the service of the fatherland for 36 years or more should not be in vain much less trivialised. (Blueprint Editorial)

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