Over 1,000 retirees of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency are still awaiting their pension benefits years after exiting service, as they decry the prolonged delay and urge the Federal Government to urgently intervene.
Former Director of Air Traffic Services at NAMA and Chairman of the NAMA Pensioners Association, Stephen Olopha, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the lingering non-payment of pension increase arrears.
Olopha told The PUNCH that the affected pensioners, who transitioned from the Defined Benefits Scheme to the Contributory Pension Scheme following the enactment of the Pension Reform Act, had not received pension increments since 2007.
He said, “We have over 1,000 retirees who have yet to get their pension. The situation is still the same as we have known since 2007. As a result of our transition from the defined benefits scheme, there was an operation before the 2004 Contributory Pension Act. So, our accrued rights were transferred into the Contributory Pension Scheme.
“So, they ought to have been increasing our pension, which they never did. So, we are asking them to pay all our arrears, pension increase arrears, from 2007 to date. And we attached a list of people who have died of poverty, suffering, because they never believed that our pensioners should be earning from the Contributory Pension whereas that is not the intention of the government.”
He lamented that despite several engagements with relevant authorities; no action had been taken to address the concerns of the retirees.
“So, when we were holding meetings with them, thinking that they would do something, but they have not done anything. And so, the pensioners have no other option but to call on the President and Commander-in-Chief to intervene. Probably NAMA doesn’t have the money to pay,” he said.
Olopha urged the Federal Government to provide financial support to enable the agency to settle the outstanding obligations, saying, “The Federal Government can give them money. So we cannot continue like this. A lot of our pensioners are old.
“Some of them have retired since 2009. And up to now, they have not received their pension increases and arrears. Whereas the Treasury-funded agency, the federal government has released funds for them to pay the retirees who transitioned to the Contributory Pension Scheme.
“And they have asked the self-funded agencies to pay their retirees. But up to date, they have not paid anybody.”
He also accused the agency of failing to implement the pension adjustment announced by President Tinubu following the increase in the national minimum wage.
“Even the N32,000 the President talked about in 2024, that as a result of the minimum wage increase from 30,000 to 70,000, they never paid some people, they said that they are not going to pay again.
“So that is why the pensioners are aggrieved and angry now. So that is the position of things.”
According to him, the retirees had exhausted all avenues for dialogue and were now seeking urgent government intervention.
“They respond that they are not going to pay any money. So, we don’t know what they want to do next. We want to tell the Federal Government to intervene. We are not workers, we are pensioners,” he said.
The NAMA pensioners are demanding the payment of pension increase arrears dating back to 2007, implementation of approved pension adjustments, and immediate intervention by the Federal Government to address their worsening welfare conditions.
The demand comes amid ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to address outstanding pension liabilities affecting retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme.
In March 2025, the Director-General of the National Pension Commission, Omolola Oloworaran, disclosed that the Federal Government had approved funds to clear pension increase arrears dating back to 2007. According to her, pension increases worth N387.5bn, which had remained unpaid for nearly two decades, would be settled through proceeds from a Federal Government bond approved by the Federal Executive Council. She stated that the intervention was aimed at restoring confidence in the Contributory Pension Scheme and addressing long-standing complaints by retirees over delayed entitlements.
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