Meager Pension Salaries of Retired Police Officers Leads to Protest in Nigeria

The protest, which started on the 21st of July 2025 in Abuja, was led by several retired officers and activists, including Omoyele Sowore, an activist and 2023 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress in Nigeria.

To show the gravity of the matter and express their dissatisfaction with the pension scheme, the retired officers marched to the National Assembly and the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, where they protested under the rain and refused to leave until they spoke with the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.

Aside from the capital in Abuja, retired officers in other parts of the country including: Edo, Plateau, Kwara, Taraba, and Cross Rivers states, also demonstrated their solidarity by starting protests of their own.

According to the protesters, retired officers earn about 10,000 to 20,000 Naira monthly, while those managing the pension distribution, PENCOM, languish in wealth. This pension salary, which they have described as ‘discriminatory,’ doesn’t come close to minimum wage and is insufficient to cater to the needs of retirees. 

The major demand of the retired officers is to be removed from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), a pension scheme in Nigeria that was established in June 2004 by the Pension

Reform Act (PRA) 2004.

The leader of the protest, who is a retired Chief Superintendent of Police, Manir Lawal, said, ”We are here to ask the government to remove us from the CPS. The pension scheme is exploitative and unjust.”

Vanguard notes that another protester said, “I am receiving #20,000 as pension after serving for 35 years. This is the receipt, how can anybody survive this very harsh economy with this, let alone children and family?’’

A police officer in the Nigeria Police Force, who I spoke to under condition of anonymity said, “The protest is much needed because the pension scheme is a killer.”

He went further to state that if the government does the needful and reviews the pension scheme, he would be at ease knowing he can adequately cater for his children after retirement.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, addressed the angry protesters at the Force Headquarters, saying, “We all feel concerned. We empathise with you because we are also going to retire. I have been engaging at the highest level to ensure that something is done to improve the condition of the poor pensioner.”

He further added, “I am not opposed to your exiting the CPS, I’m not opposed to it. If exiting from CPS will solve the problem, I will go for it. But if it is difficult for us to exit CPS, what else can we do? We have been agitating, exit CPS, exit CPS. For the past 11 years, it has not worked.”

The IGP, however, assured the retired officers that he was on their side and has been working behind the scenes to ensure that retired officers earn better pension wages.