The recent warning by pensioners in the South West geopolitical zone to vote out governors who fail to pay their entitlements indicates the frustration and hardship retirees are still experiencing in obtaining what is due to them under insensitive state leaders. The Federal Government is not spared from this worrisome manifestation of bad leadership, at least with the recent protests in Abuja and Calabar by retired police officers against what they described as humiliating and dehumanising retirement benefits they receive under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
 
A crucial quality of a good leader is sensitivity to the plight of those being led, which should be demonstrated concretely. Even the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria expressly and unambiguously states that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of the government. It remains disappointing and distressing that despite the trenchant calls for priority to be given to payment of entitlements of ex-workers, especially at this time of unprecedented hardship in the country, some governors have blocked their ears to the entreaties, consequently making pensioners continue to live their post-service years and old age in penury. Despite the very paltry stipends they are being paid, the governors can’t even ensure they get it as and when due. It is callous and unacceptable. Our leaders must stop making retirement a death sentence.
 
It was widely reported in the media that the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) in the South West region, at its zonal council meeting held recently in Akure, the Ondo State capital, threatened not to vote for governors who fail to cater for their welfare and well-being in the 2027 general elections. The union lamented the irregular payment of pensions and gratuities of its members by the South West governors. The zonal NUP particularly expressed disappointment with the situation in Ondo State, where it said 2013 gratuities were just being paid to local government retirees while state workers who retired since 2016 were just getting their gratuities. ‘This is not good enough for those that have served the state meritoriously and for those who have one ailment or the other…’ the NUP said.

In its communiqué, the union also lamented that Ekiti State was not forthcoming in the payment of gratuities and pensions, with N100 million monthly allocation that is not even regular. The spokesman of the union, Dr. Olusegun Obatan, however, praised Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, who pays N2 billion as arrears of pension and gratuities monthly, and his Ogun State counterpart, Dapo Abiodun, who has released N8.8 billion in the last two months to pay the same entitlements.
 
Indeed, thousands of retirees, including ex-servicemen across the country, are living their post-service years in perpetual penury as their employers are not prioritising their plight. It has become almost impossible for many of them to get the meagre stipends they are being paid, despite being insufficient to sustain them. In many cases, these retirees will not start getting their entitlements until after about 13 years in retirement. One of such terrible cases was that of about 335 ex-workers in Niger State who were paid their benefits around July 2024 after 21 years in retirement.
 
In some of these states, retirees are reportedly being forced to part with a percentage of their benefits, especially gratuity, before they are paid the balance. This bribe is extended to the gratuities of those who died in active service, through their families seeking to collect the benefits. It is wicked, reprehensible and unpardonable on the part of the civil servants involved. It is also wickedness on the part of any government not to give priority to payment of entitlements of workers who died while in service and left behind children who must be fed, whose school fees must be paid, who must be clothed and whose health must be taken care of. In a sane society where leaders listen and public interest is the primary purpose of being in a position of power, the entitlements of civil servants who died while serving their country should be paid without any delay.
 
It is also deplorable that many states that refuse to give serious attention to the plight of retirees have life pension laws in favour of their former governors and deputy governors, which guarantee that the former political office holders maintain lives of luxury through generous pensions and other benefits. Besides, some of the ex-governors are still in government, drawing pensions and other retirement benefits from the states they governed, just as they are also drawing salaries and allowances as either senators or ministers, while retired civil servants of their states are languishing in abject poverty and destitution, and even dying. What is their offence?
 
The Southwest states, particularly Ondo and Ekiti, that have been established as owing thousands of their ex-workers their gratuities and pension for too long a time, have a responsibility to prove to the whole world that there is integrity in their administrations and that they are committed to the welfare of their people by paying these entitlements now as Oyo and Ogun states are doing. Governors must display empathy in the governance of their states to be able to earn the respect and support of their people. When retirees vow not to vote for a governor in this circumstance, it speaks volumes about the character and dignity of such a leader.
 
In the pension reform promised to the protesting retired police officers by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, there is a need to investigate the allegation of deliberate mismanagement and manipulation of their pension funds by the police leadership and the pension administrators. Why were pension deductions not remitted to the account of the retirees, or why are they not reflected in the financial statements? The complaint about low pension and insensitivity of the leadership of the security agency to the plight of the ex-personnel should also be sincerely addressed.
 
In a television show, a former governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, once disclosed that he was receiving about N800,000 in monthly pensions from the state government. The figure for other former governors who are receiving a pension is not likely to be lower. It is distressing that politicians who occupied public office for between four and eight years are getting this amount of money as pension in the same country where millions of retirees who served for about 35 years, especially security operatives whose jobs make them to physical harm and even death, are being paid what cannot cook a pot of soup as monthly pension.
 
Retirees do not deserve the trauma and frustration they suffer to get their legitimate benefits, as we see it happen in this country. They also deserve better pay.