Pensioners, who retired from the Federal Civil Service, have threatened a nationwide protest following the failure of the Federal Government to pay their wage awards.
The pensioners, under the aegis of Federal Civil Service Pensioners, an affiliate of the National Union of Pensioners, expressed dismay at the failure of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to pay the wage awards despite the untold hardship currently being faced by Nigerians following the removal of the fuel subsidy.
Tinubu, in his October 2023 Independence Day speech, announced that his administration would pay the sum of N35,000 to active workers and N25,000 to pensioners as wage awards pending the conclusion of negotiations on a new minimum wage.
Though the government commenced the payment to active workers, the scheme was suspended before it took off again in December 2023 after pressure from organised labour.
While addressing selected members of the press in Abuja on Wednesday, the President of the Federal Civil Service Pensioners, Sunday Omezi, said pensioners were going through a tough time.
“We feel constrained to bring to the knowledge of the world through this medium, the excruciating pains and agony we have been subjected to over the years by the same government we served vigorously and diligently with our youthful energy without blemish only to be abused, dehumanised, marginalised and neglected with reckless abandon, after sapping our energy and leaving us dejected and consigned to rot and death.”
Speaking on the unpaid wage award, Omezi said, “It is pathetic and disappointing to bring to the fore, the non-payment of the N25,000 wage award promised to pensioners by the government. It is rather distasteful that up to date, no single payment has been made to pensioners. We are hereby demanding immediate payment of the awards because it is so embarrassing for such a promise to be left unfulfilled.”