By KINGSLEY OYONG AKAM, Lancaster, UK
For decades, a career in Nigeria’s public service was considered a guaranteed path to security in old age. Teachers, security personnel, nurses, clerks, and administrators dedicated their lives to the nation, believing that retirement would bring rest, dignity, and financial stability. Today, however, that promise lies in ruins. Public service in Nigeria often leads not to comfort but to perpetual poverty and suffering. After 35 years of service in most cases, and retiring between the ages of 60 and 70, many discover that state governors and the federal government either refuse to pay gratuities, delay payments indefinitely, or provide only “peanuts.” Countless pensioners have died without collecting a single kobo of their entitlement, while others struggle to afford medical care.
This systemic neglect is more than administrative failure—it is a driver of corruption. Current employees, anticipating the same fate, often resort to bribery and misuse of office as survival strategies. Such tragedies have become normalised across Nigeria, particularly in states like Cross River. This stands in stark contrast to countries like the UK, where retirees are treated with dignity and respect.
A Systemic Failure with a Human Face
Heartbreaking stories emerge from across the nation. In 2020, retirees in Delta and Ogun states staged simultaneous demonstrations, brandishing placards that read, “Pay us before we die.” The backlog of pensions and gratuities in Delta alone was estimated at over ₦48 billion (Punch, September 9, 2020). In Niger State, retirees have repeatedly protested unpaid gratuities, with some waiting seven or eight years without relief. “We have lost colleagues to sickness and hunger while waiting for this money,” one protester lamented (Gazette Nigeria, September 21, 2022). The crisis is equally severe in Cross River State. A 2022 newspaper report stated that civil servants “are retiring into poverty as the government defaults on pension payments [and] squanders money on frivolities.” One pensioner, Essien, expressed his despair: “We are helpless and hopeless. Some of us have been forced to withdraw our children from school because we cannot pay their fees. Others are suffering from terminal illnesses without the means to care for themselves” (Cross River Watch, December 24, 2022). In Anambra, pensioners blocked government offices in October 2023, demanding the settlement of gratuities withheld for four years (Tribune Online, October 24, 2023). These demonstrations are not mere political theatre—they are desperate cries for survival. Retirees are often forced to depend on family members for food and medicine, and many die without ever receiving a kobo of what they earned.
The Broader Impact: Corruption by Design, Glimmers of Hope and Contrasts That Sting.
Analysts argue that chronic delays in gratuity payments do more than impoverish retirees—they fuel corruption within the civil and public service. Current employees, watching their predecessors abandoned, fear the same fate. The result is a perverse incentive: workers attempt to “secure” their futures through bribes, kickbacks, and misuse of office while still in service. The logic is chilling—when the system fails to guarantee support after retirement, workers resort to illegal means of self-preservation. The state’s failure thus not only punishes the elderly but also corrodes the integrity of the active workforce.
Nigeria’s Minister-of-Labour-and-Employment-Muhammandu-Maigari-Dingyadi
Despite the fact that all states are guilty of this neglect, most states have recently begun paying their backlogs of retirement benefits or have promised to start. In May 2025, Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State announced that his administration had cleared seven years of pension and gratuity arrears inherited from past governments, including four years of civil service pension backlogs (Daily Post, May 1, 2025). In Enugu, Governor Peter Mbah launched a biometric verification exercise to eliminate ghost pensioners and began payments dating back to 2010 (ThisDay Live, March 12, 2025).
In Borno State, Governor Babagana Zulum approved ₦8 billion to clear part of the state’s backlog of gratuities and pensions (The Guardian Nigeria, January 2, 2025). These examples show that political will can make a difference. Yet they also highlight the stark contrast with the many states where elderly citizens are left to languish. For every state making progress, many more allow arrears to mount, leaving retirees in perpetual anxiety. They are many retirees from Cross River State, that have waited between five and fifteen years for benefits that never came. Several other affected pensioners spoke with this writer on the condition of anonymity.
The Global Perspective
In the United Kingdom, public servants receive pensions managed by independent bodies, guaranteed to be paid monthly into their bank accounts upon retirement. Payments are predictable, transparent, and legally protected, allowing pensioners to retain their dignity and independence. In Nigeria, by contrast, retirees endure opaque processes, endless verifications, and delays subject to the whims of state governors and fluctuating allocations. What should be a reward for decades of service becomes a humiliating battle for survival.
The Path Forward: Urgent Reform or National Shame
Civil society groups, including the Pension Rights Advocacy Network, warn that failure to address this crisis threatens not only the welfare of today’s retirees but also the stability of Nigeria’s governance system. Their demands include:
• Dedicated Pension Funds: Legislation requiring states to ring-fence part of their monthly federal allocations for pensions and gratuities.
• Biometric Automation: A nationwide digital database to replace manual verifications and eliminate ghost workers.
• Legal Accountability: Stronger penalties for state governments that fail to clear arrears within a stipulated timeframe.
“Denying retirees their rightful benefits is not just an economic failure,” said one activist. “It is a violation of human rights and a betrayal that erodes all trust in government.”
Conclusion: A Nation’s Test of Integrity
As Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria cannot afford to treat its elderly as disposable labour. Allowing retirees to die in penury after decades of service is more than a financial scandal—it is a moral stain and a test of the state’s commitment to justice.
The fate of today’s civil servants is tied to the treatment of yesterday’s. Unless systemic reforms are enacted, the vicious cycle will continue: despair for retirees, corruption among workers, and a government that fails its own people.
The choice before Nigeria is stark: honour the past or betray the future.
