Increase minimum pension to N40,000 – NUP South-West tasks Oyebanji, Dapo Abiodun, others

Adebayo Adenrele




The Nigeria Union of Pensioners, (NUP) Southwest Zone has called on Governor Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State and other five Governors in the zone to increase the living minimum pension of Pensioners in their respective States to up to N40,000.

This is contained in a communique read by the Public Relations Officer of the Council, Comrade Dr Olusegun Abatan, on Thursday during the Southwest Zonal council meeting held in Ado-Ekiti, state capital of Ekiti State.

The Council charged Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, Abdulrahman abdulrasaq of Kwara State and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State to place premium on the welfare of the Pensioners in their state through payment of arrears and harmonisation of pension.

The statement read in part, “We are requesting that our governors in the South-West to please address the payments of gratuities that have amounted to billions of Naira in the various states, payment of arrears of pensions and harmonization.

“We also want our governments in the South-West to address the issue of pension because we have pensioners in all the six states of the South-West that earn as little as 350, 500, 600 in some states. Pensioners want a minimum leaving pension of up to N40,000. We want harmonization of pension.”

The Council also called on President Bola Tinubu not to hesitate in attending to salary bills of Nigerian workers in order to lift them out of the challenges caused by the subsidy removal on premium motor spirit (PMS).

“About a month or two ago, His Excellency President Bola Tinubu made a statement that whenever he saw the salary bill of workers in Abuja that he shivers. I hope this statement is not a signal that workers at the federal level and governors taking the same thing at the state level doesn’t translate to mass sack of workers both at the federal and state levels.

“This is not the time to start thinking about the sack of workers but a time to lift Nigerians out of the problem caused sudden removal of petrol subsidy and the economic downturn.”