The demonstration, organised under the Progressive NITEL–MTEL Pensioners’ Forum, attracted hundreds of elderly retirees — many visibly weak — who accused the Nigerian government of “systemic exclusion and calculated neglect” despite years of dedicated service under the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS).
Protesters chanted solidarity songs and carried placards criticising the Ministry of Finance, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), and the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) for allegedly abandoning them. They stated that the current administration inherited 36 months of unpaid pension arrears owed specifically to NITEL–MTEL retirees but has only cleared one month so far, leaving 35 months outstanding.
Some pensioners who spoke with journalists revealed that many of their colleagues had died due to lack of money for medication, food, and basic survival needs.
“We are not begging. We worked for this country,” one retiree said. “Government paid others under DBS but left us out deliberately.”
A major complaint during the protest was the exclusion of NITEL–MTEL retirees from the ₦32,000 pension increase recently approved for other pensioners under the same DBS structure. They described the exclusion as discriminatory, unlawful, and a deliberate attempt to erase them from Nigeria’s retirement system.
Their demands include:
- Immediate payment of the 35 months’ outstanding arrears;
- Inclusion in the ₦32,000 pension increase and payment of accrued backlogs;
- Settlement of the outstanding 12.95% increase (2020);
- Payment of arrears from the 10.66% adjustment (2015);
- Release of the pending ₦25,000 palliative;
- Payment of verified death benefits to next-of-kin;
- Placement of verified pensioners on payroll, some of whom have not been paid since 2018;
- Improved coordination between PTAD, NSIWC, the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General.
Addressing journalists, the Forum’s spokesperson, Okey Ifepe, accused the government of “killing pensioners softly through bureaucracy and silence.”
“Every day justice is delayed, a pensioner suffers or dies quietly,” he said. “We are here today because we refuse to remain invisible.”
