Retired military personnel have temporarily suspended their protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, following assurances from government officials that their outstanding entitlements will be settled by Friday.
The former soldiers, who had occupied the entrance of the ministry with chairs and canopies on Monday, are demanding payment of long-overdue gratuities and allowances.
Their protest comes shortly after a similar action by police officers across the country, who have been demanding exclusion from the Contributory Pension Scheme, which they describe as exploitative and insufficient. They are pushing for a return to the old defined benefits system.
One of the protest leaders, a retired sergeant known as Mama G, said the government promised to pay them by Friday, and that they had chosen to give them the benefit of the doubt. She explained that if payments were not received by then, they would return in greater numbers. She also expressed sadness that after 20 years of service, she received only N3.7 million, which she felt was grossly inadequate.
Another protester, retired Corporal Moses Eze, emphasized that the demonstration was not intended to disrupt peace but to claim what is rightfully theirs. He said over 700 ex-soldiers were still awaiting their entitlements from the first to fourth quarters, and that they had exercised patience for over a year. He noted that the purpose of the protest was to avoid being driven to desperate measures, adding that they are retired professionals who know how to handle firearms. He warned that if the government failed to fulfill its promise, they might not return to the same location but instead take actions that would attract more serious attention.
Eze further broke down the figures, stating that payments for the first and second quarters affected 400 personnel, while the third and fourth quarters covered 300. He accused the Nigerian Army of withholding money that rightly belonged to them.
Also speaking, retired Sergeant Abdul Rasheed Isiaka explained that many of them were officially discharged in 2023 with disengagement dates marked as February 2024. He said they had only received half of their gratuities, and that other allowances, such as SDA and parking allowance, remained unpaid. According to him, their salaries were also stopped just three months after the start of their terminal leave. He noted that several letters had been written to the Ministry of Finance, Defence Headquarters, and other relevant bodies warning of a protest if their dues were not paid by August 4, 2024.
On their reasons for retirement, Mama G said she did not initially plan to leave the military, but chose to exit due to corruption and mistreatment. She felt she had already wasted her youthful years in a system that gave her nothing in return. For Corporal Eze, the decision was driven by injustice. He recalled that he began building a house in 2015, which remains uncompleted to this day due to financial constraints. He said he could not continue in a system that failed to reward loyalty and feared being forced into criminal activities just to survive. Having served 13 years out of a possible 35, he said the injustice was too much to bear.
The ex-soldiers warned that if no payments are made by the promised date, their next steps may be more drastic and carried out in a way that would force the authorities to listen.
