Retirees stage protest, demand N32,000 pension benefits, others

Aggrieved former employees of the defunct Arab Bank and Assurance Bank took to the streets of Lagos on Wednesday, protesting what they described as systemic neglect by regulatory authorities that has pushed them into severe poverty.

The protest, held at the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) office, saw approximately 1,020 affected staff nationwide demanding immediate federal government intervention. These senior citizens have been embroiled in a dispute for 20 years since the banks' liquidation.

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We are ex-staff of the defunct Arab Bank and Assurance Bank. We worked, and we are qualified to be paid pension. Up till now, many of us are here to be paid; even those who are paid are not sufficiently paid.

Many retirees reported receiving monthly pensions below N10,000, a sum far short of the N32,000 minimum pension baseline approved nationally. Placards displayed during the peaceful demonstration highlighted their struggles, with messages like "Today, today, PTAD must answer us," and "After 32 years of service, where is our 32k pension palliatives?"

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The N32,000 palliative that was granted for all minimum wage… we are excluded. I can tell you for free that many of us here, our pension is under N10,000. I don’t know how we can survive with that.

Their core grievance centers on a perceived "discriminatory dichotomy" by PTAD, which absorbed the workers in 2019 but allegedly failed to provide benefits comparable to those of regular federal government retirees. Mr. Idowu Oshikoya, a protest coordinator and former Assurance Bank staff member, stated, "Up till now, many of us are here to be paid; even those who are paid are not sufficiently paid."

Adding to their hardship is the lack of clarity surrounding the multi-billion-naira assets left behind when the banks were liquidated two decades ago. Mr. Bola Olaniyan, another former Assurance Bank worker, lamented the lack of response from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), who were involved in the liquidation. "For 20 years, some of our members have not been paid a dime. We wrote to the NDIC, we wrote to the CBN… they never deemed it fit to reply to us," he said.

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It was the NDIC that liquidated us, and this has been for about 20 years. For 20 years, some of our members have not been paid a dime. We wrote to the NDIC, we wrote to the CBN… they never deemed it fit to reply to us.