Former Labour Party 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has slammed the federal government following a report that pensioners are planning a nationwide protest over unpaid pensions and gratuities.

Obi wrote in a tweet on Wednesday that it was sad that men and women who gave the best years of their lives to serve the country are now being forced to consider protests to get what is due to them.

He questions why retirees remain unpaid despite President Bola Tinubu’s recent announcement that Nigeria had met its revenue target.

Obi added that revenue growth should be seen in the lives of ordinary people, especially those struggling to survive.

Obi wrote: “I read with deep concern that our pensioners, men and women who gave the most productive years of their lives in service to our country, have been pushed to contemplate a nationwide protest over unpaid arrears.

“Just last month, Mr. President announced that Nigeria had reached its revenue target. If that is true, then the moral question is simple: why are our senior citizens, who worked, served, and sacrificed, still owed their rightful pensions and gratuities? Revenue growth should first reflect in the lives of the people, especially those in difficult times.”

The former Anambra governor noted that excess revenue “must not remain on paper” but the extra money should be used to pay pensioners and restore their dignity, and to assure the working population that Nigeria values their labour and service.

He added that “anything less is unjust and unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, the Coalition of Federal Pensioners, led by its National Chairman, Mukaila Ogunbote, gave the government until the end of September to settle arrears and implement the promised increments and palliatives.

Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos, Ogunbote, who also heads the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NIPOST Chapter, said pensioners would embark on a naked protest across the country on October 6 if the government failed to act.

He recalled that in October 2023, President Tinubu approved N35,000 as palliatives for workers and N25,000 for pensioners. While workers received theirs within one month, he said, retirees are still waiting nearly a year later.

“Workers demanded and received additional palliatives for ten months, but pensioners’ requests for six months’ worth have not been met,” he said.

Ogunbote added that the President had also directed an increase of N13,000 in pensions, but no implementation had followed from either the Ministry of Finance or the Office of the Accountant-General.

“When we enquired, we were told our N32,000 increment was omitted from both the 2024 and 2025 budgets. This is injustice,” he said. (The Guardian)