Veteran armed forces officers operating through their organization are preparing to stage a demonstration at the Ministry of Defence on Wednesday regarding the delayed rollout of corresponding adjustments to their pension payouts, following wage boosts granted to active duty troops.
A leader among the veterans, Col Innocent Azubike (retd.), revealed the planned action during an interview on Monday, explaining that the demonstration seeks to press for what he characterized as the lawful retirement entitlements of former servicemen.
Azubike stated that President Bola Tinubu sanctioned a pay raise for active military personnel in November 2025, an action that, in his view, ought to have triggered a matching modification to the retirement packages of former officers.
Nonetheless, he expressed frustration that the revision remains unfulfilled despite multiple confirmations from defense leadership regarding the President’s endorsement.
He noted, “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.”
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According to him, matters grew more intricate following an additional compensation raise announced for active forces in August 2026, set to commence this coming September.
Azubike asserted that although financial estimates were drawn up to execute the newest compensation boost, the matching revision for military retirees was left out.
He indicated that this omission forms the core driver behind the upcoming demonstration, emphasizing that while the former personnel do not object to the latest wage increase, they insist that pensioners be covered under the associated adjustment.
He remarked, “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 cautioned that omitting current retirees threatens to create pay inequities between veterans of identical rank and equivalent lengths of duty who exited the service during different periods.
He detailed that recently discharged personnel could draw significantly larger monthly disbursements because their retirement builds upon the upgraded compensation framework, whereas equivalent officers who retired previously would remain on diminished payouts.
“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 stated.
When reached for a response, the media representative for the Minister of Defence, Leah Katung-Babatunde, opted not to offer a statement.
