Retired military officers under the aegis of their association are set to protest at the Ministry of Defence on Wednesday over the non-implementation of the consequential adjustment to their pensions, following salary increases for serving military personnel.
One of the leaders of the retirees, Col Innocent Azubike (retd.), disclosed this in an interview on Monday, saying the protest was aimed at demanding what he described as the constitutional pension rights of military retirees.
Azubike said President Bola Tinubu approved a salary increase for military personnel in November 2025, which, according to him, should have resulted in a corresponding adjustment to the pensions of retired personnel.
He, however, lamented that the adjustment had yet to be implemented despite repeated acknowledgements by military authorities of the President’s approval.
He said, “We have a protest on Wednesday at the Ministry of Defence to demand our constitutional pension rights.
“In November last year, the President approved a new pay increase for the military, and it came with a consequential adjustment for retirees and pensioners.
“It was in the news throughout that November, and the high military authorities repeatedly thanked the President for the gesture.
“But suddenly, in July and August, it was not implemented, and they started changing their stories, as if it should be forgotten.”
According to him, the situation was further complicated by another salary increase announced for military personnel in August 2026, which is expected to take effect from September.
Azubike alleged that while funds had been computed for the implementation of the latest salary increase, the consequential adjustment for military pensioners was excluded.
He said the exclusion was the main reason for the planned protest, adding that the retirees were not opposed to the latest salary increase but demanded that pensioners be included in the consequential adjustment.
He said, “Another military salary increase was announced this August, totally ignoring that of last year. The new announcement is supposed to start implementation in September.
“They have computed the fund requirement for implementing this second announcement of pay increase. In their computation, they excluded pensioners and the consequential adjustment of pensioners’ pensions. That is the main issue we are protesting.”
Azubike warned that the exclusion of existing pensioners could create disparities between military personnel of the same rank and with similar years of service who retired at different times.
He explained that newly retired officers could earn substantially higher pensions because they would retire on the new salary structure, while officers of the same rank who retired earlier would continue to receive lower pensions.
“The implication is that when they raise the salary of serving personnel, those who will be retiring from the new salary scale, their pension will be far higher than their contemporaries of the same rank and equal number of years of service who had earlier retired.
“You could now have a situation where a recently retired captain, for example, could be receiving N500,000, while an older captain who had retired earlier could be receiving N250,000, and the same thing affects all the ranks.
“So, in demand of that consequential adjustment for pension, we are coming for the protest at the Ministry of Defence,” he said.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Minister of Defence, Leah Katung-Babatunde, declined to comment.
Source: punchng.com
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