NITEL–MTEL Pensioners Picket Finance Ministry Over 35-Month Arrears
By Patience Ikpeme
Retired staff of the defunct Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its mobile arm, MTEL, staged a massive protest outside the Federal Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, claiming their pensions and entitlements remain unpaid after years of service.
The pensioners, under the aegis of their union, lamented the continuous exclusion from government benefits, stating that they are the only defunct agency under the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) that has not been fully settled.
Okey Ifepe, spokesman for the NITEL–MTEL Pensioners, spoke on behalf of the aged protesters. “We stand here today not as beggars, not as agitators, but as senior citizens who gave our strength, our youth, and our loyalty to this country,” Mr. Ifepe stated. “Yet after decades of service, we are abandoned, excluded, unpaid and forgotten.”
The core grievance is the 35 months of pension arrears owed to the retirees. “Not 35 months of waiting — 35 months of our lawful earnings withheld,” the spokesman explained, detailing the devastating consequences of the delay.
“Thirty-five months of hunger. Thirty-five months of sickness. Thirty-five months of watching our colleagues die in silence,” he said, adding that the injustice is apparent because other defunct agencies like New Nigerian Newspapers, NICON Insurance, and Nigeria Reinsurance “has been fully settled. Only NITEL–MTEL pensioners remain unpaid.”
The pensioners posed a poignant question to the authorities: “What is our crime? Why should those who served this nation be treated with so much cruelty?” Mr. Ifepe painted a grim picture of their reality: “Many pensioners sleep on church benches. Many depend on neighbours to eat. Widows cry at night because there is no money for medicine or food. This is not statistics — this is suffering. This is death.”
The pensioners also voiced strong objection to their exclusion from the ₦32,000 pension increase approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for all DBS pensioners.
“Other pensioners received it. NITEL–MTEL pensioners did not,” Mr. Ifepe observed, noting that they operate under the “Same DBS platform. Same PTAD validation. Same hardship. Yet we were excluded.”
He questioned the humanitarian rationale behind the decision, asking: “How can anyone survive on ₦14,500, ₦16,000, or ₦17,000 a month? How can the poorest pensioners be the only ones denied the relief? This is not fairness. This is not justice. This is deliberate neglect — and it is killing our people.”
The pensioners also demand the payment of several other entitlements, including the balance of the 12.95% pension increase (2020), the 10.66% pension adjustment (2015), the ₦25,000 palliative promised to all DBS pensioners, and death benefits for verified Next-of-Kin.
The group issued a list of demands to be met by the Federal Government, including the Ministries of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), as well as the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).
Their key demands are the immediate payment of the 35 months pension arrears owed to NITEL–MTEL pensioners, and their inclusion in the ₦32,000 pension increase, with arrears and retrospective effect. They also demand the settlement of the outstanding balance of the 12.95% increase (2020) and the payment of the arrears of the 10.66% adjustment (2015). Furthermore, the pensioners call for the release of the ₦25,000 palliative for NITEL-MTEL pensioners, immediate payment of verified death benefits to Next-of-Kin, and payroll for verified pensioners not yet paid since 2018. Finally, they require improved synergy among PTAD, NSIWC, AGF, and Finance to ensure an end to conflicting explanations.
Concluding his address, Mr. Ifepe made a passionate final plea: “Every day you delay, a pensioner dies quietly. Every month you postpone justice, a widow sleeps hungry. We still believe justice is possible. Do not turn your backs on us again. Do not ignore our cries.”
