Governors Don’t Value Us, Pensioners Lament

The Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, Southwest Zone, has lamented the backlog of pensions and gratuity owed its members by governors.

According to the pensioners, most of the state governors in the zone have no regard for them.

Speaking in Lagos State during the body’s zonal meeting, the Chairman, Southwest Zone of NUP, Waheed Oloyede, decried the attitude of some states’ chief executives to yield to the plight of pensioners, while pleading with the governors to increase pensions in their various states, pay regularly and as at when due.

According to Oloyede, some pensioners were still receiving as low as N5,000 monthly.

He said: “Nigerian constitution provides increase in pension every five years and whenever salaries of workers are increased, that of pensioners should also increase. We have discovered that only the federal government is fulfilling the promise, but the states are not.

“The consequential increase in the pension that was approved by the federal government in 2019 was not implemented in many states. We are using the opportunity of this meeting to appeal to all the governors that have not implemented the increase to do so without any further delay.”