Once again, retired police officers pension protest in Nigeria have taken to the streets to demand what is rightfully theirs – their hard-earned pensions. The sight of elderly retired officers protesting at the National Assembly over several months of unpaid entitlements is a shameful indictment of the government’s inability to manage the pension system effectively.
This is not a new issue either. Retired police officers have been protesting for years now against the contributory pension scheme, which has clearly failed them. Back in 2021, retirees from 27 states stormed the National Assembly making similar demands. The placards they carried – “Police officers are dying in penury under the contributory pension scheme” and “CPS is a death sentence against police!” – paint a grim picture of the suffering these retirees have endured.
It’s appalling that after serving the nation for decades, upholding law and order, often at great personal risk, these men and women in their twilight years have to resort to protests just to get their legitimate dues paid out. Where is the appreciation and dignity they deserve?
The government’s bungling of the contributory pension scheme has real human costs. Many of these retirees rely solely on their pensions to pay for basic necessities like housing, food, and medical care. By failing to pay them on time, the authorities have condemned them to severe hardship and undignified living conditions. This is unacceptable.
Clearly, removing police retirees from the contributory scheme, as they are demanding, needs serious consideration. If the current system is so fundamentally flawed that it cannot ensure these retirees receive their entitlements in a timely manner, then an overhaul is in order. Their years of service and sacrifice should not be repaid with neglect.
Until substantive reforms are made, the government must prioritize immediately clearing all backlogged pension payments to retired officers. Stopgap measures like taking out loans to pay arrears, if needed, should be pursued. These retirees have already waited too long.
The recurrence of these protests is an embarrassing failure by Nigerian authorities. Veteran police officers should be able to age with dignity, not fight for the pensions they earned protecting the nation. The government must take accountability and ensure this inexcusable situation is resolved permanently. Insufficient funding or bureaucratic lapses are no excuse for such dereliction of duty towards these retirees.
Reference
Retired police officers storm N’Assembly, protest over unpaid pensions published in Punch.