A retired inspector general of police receives less in monthly pension than a junior civil servant earns in salary. This is not hyperbole. It is the arithmetic of a system designed in 1993 and abandoned since. Retired police officers are protesting what they call 'contributory slavery', and they are right. A man who spent thirty years protecting citizens, absorbing bullets and trauma, now watches his pension shrink in real terms every month while inflation eats what little he has. The government created this crisis and refuses to own it.
The contributory pension scheme, introduced in 2004, shifted risk from employer to worker. Police officers contribute 8 percent of salary. The government contributes 12 percent. Sounds fair on paper. In reality, these contributions are invested in instruments that do not match inflation or the cost of living in Nigeria. A retired officer with thirty years of service might have accumulated N15 million in their pension pot. At current yields, this generates roughly N50,000 monthly. Meanwhile, a kilowatt of electricity costs what it did not cost two years ago. Rent has doubled. A tin of tomato paste costs more. The system assumed inflation would stay at 3 or 4 percent. Nigeria's inflation is above 30 percent. The math is broken.
Government workers under the old defined benefit scheme receive pensions that roughly equal 50 percent of their final salary. A retiring police commissioner might get N300,000 monthly. A retiring inspector general in the old scheme might get N800,000. A retired inspector under the contributory scheme gets N40,000. This is not just unfair. It is the state breaking faith with men who did the state's dangerous work. The government promised to make contributions. It did, technically. But it designed a scheme that would inevitably fail once inflation exceeded single digits. Nigeria's finance ministry knew this. They approved it anyway.
The strongest argument against increasing police pensions is budget constraint. Nigeria's budget is stretched. Debt servicing consumes 90 percent of government revenue. There is no room for pension increases. This is true. But it is also a lie by omission. Nigeria spends billions on projects that vanish. Road contracts are awarded to firms that exist only on paper. Ministers travel with retinues that cost the state millions. The government finds money for things it cares about. It does not care about retired police pensions. If it did, it would restructure the pension scheme immediately, increase the employer contribution rate, or move retirees to a hybrid system that guarantees a minimum pension. It does none of these things. Saying there is no money is not explanation. It is confession.
The solution is not complex. The government must acknowledge that the contributory scheme failed retirees who entered it under false assumptions about inflation and investment returns. For police and military personnel, the government should move to a defined benefit hybrid: guarantee a minimum pension equal to 40 percent of final salary, with the employee's contributions held in reserve. This costs money upfront. The government must find it by cutting waste, not by leaving old police officers to choose between medicine and food. Tinubu's administration likes to speak of building a new Nigeria. That Nigeria does not sacrifice those who kept the old one from collapsing.
OduViews represents the editorial opinion of OduNews.
