Many retired soldiers yesterday resumed their protest in Abuja against what they described as government’s failure to pay their entitlements.
They also alleged that the military had started ejecting them from barracks without paying their parking allowances.
They had, on August 4, 2025, suspended their protest following assurances by officials of the Ministries of Defence and Finance that their entitlements would be paid by August 10.
Addressing reporters during the demonstration at the Ministry of Finance yesterday, the leader of the protesters, who simply identified herself as Mama Gee, said: “We are again here because the promises made to us were never fulfilled.
“This is the third time we are coming to the protest ground because the first time we came, they promised us and did not fulfill the promise. Second time too, they did not fulfill their promises too.
“This time, we don’t want promise. We want to see (bank) alerts. We have served this country with all our hearts and all our minds. 20 years is not 20 days. My youthful age, I used it in the army. What do I want to use N3.7 million to do? And these are ex-soldiers, people that fought the war and went to Maiduguri, they don’t know anything apart from weapons. Do they want them to go and join bandits?”
Their demands included short fall in the payment of Security Debarment Allowance, unpaid gratuity, parking allowance before ejection from barracks and four months’ withheld salaries.
The Defence Headquarters handles Security Debarment Allowance paid to ex-servicemen to discourage them from using the training they acquired in the service against the state; while the Military Pension Board handles gratuities of ex-servicemen of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.
This Army is expected to resolve the issues of withheld salaries, Insurance and Parking Allowance.
Army’s spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Appolonia Anele, had told Daily Trust last month that insurance is paid to family members of officers that died in the line of duties. She had also said the finance department of the Army was working on the parking allowance and the withheld salaries.
Retired servicemen speak
Speaking to journalists, the protesting veterans appealed for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s intervention.
One of them, Sergeant Henry Ochade, said: “They paid us with the old chart instead of the new one. Even with the old chart, they still owe me about N900,000 in pension and gratuity. Many of us are still being owed between N500,000 and N800,000.”
Also speaking, Sergeant Igweze Ushanna, said, “Four months’ salary arrears have not been paid. Parking allowances have also not been settled, yet they are sending people out of the barracks. Is it a crime to serve in the Nigerian Army?”.
Sergeant Obinna Onyami said: “They told us relocation allowance is N77,000. How can that take a family from Lagos to the East? The chart we know says a sergeant is entitled to over N400,000.”
DHQ cautions protesting ex-soldiers
The Defence Headquarters yesterday asked the protesting ex-servicemen to vacate the Ministry of Finance, warning that their continued action was disrupting government activities.
Director, Defence Media Operations, Major-General Markus Kanye, told journalists that the agitation stemmed from the introduction of two separate salary charts for military personnel in 2024 following the implementation of the new minimum wage.
“A pre-minimum wage chart was in effect between January 1 and July 28, 2024, while the “minimum wage chart” took effect from July 29, 2024, and remains applicable.
“The actions of these protesting soldiers are seriously affecting the smooth conduct of activities at the Ministry of Finance.
“While the Defence Headquarters acknowledges the right to legitimate protest, the veterans are strongly advised to tread with caution and vacate the premises of the Federal Ministry of Finance to allow government functions to continue seamlessly.
“This is the message we have been directed to pass on, so that through your medium, our veterans and the Nigerian public can be properly informed.
“Let me reaffirm that the Armed Forces of Nigeria remain fully committed to their constitutional mandate of defending the territorial integrity of our great nation, supporting civil authorities in maintaining internal security, and ensuring peace and stability across all regions,” Kangye said.
Kangye noted that gratuity and security debarment allowance for retired personnel were calculated based on the salary chart in effect on the date of retirement.
Before the implementation of the new minimum wage, there was a chart on which gratuity and security debarment allowance for soldiers was calculated, and later, the minimum wage chart. Essentially, there were two charts in 2024.
“The first, known as the pre-minimum wage chart, was effective from January 1, 2024, to July 28, 2024. I repeat: January 1, 2024, to July 28, 2024. This was the chart used to calculate the emoluments of retired soldiers and other military personnel.
“The second was the minimum wage chart, which took effect from July 29, 2024, and remains applicable to date. Now, the calculation of gratuity and security debarment allowance for military personnel is based on the salary chart in effect on the date of retirement
“If a soldier retires today, his entitlements will be calculated using the current chart. If another chart is introduced tomorrow, the same soldier’s entitlements will not be recalculated based on the new chart.
Unfortunately, the soldiers who retired between January 1 and July 28, 2024, before the implementation of the new minimum wage, want their gratuity and allowances calculated based on the new chart. This cannot be done because the policy only came into effect on July 29.
“Those who fall within the pre-minimum wage chart category are the soldiers who have continued to protest and block access to the Federal Ministry of Finance, despite repeated explanations from the Defence Headquarters,” he said.
Expert asks FG to meet ex-servicemen’s demands
A security expert, Major Bashir Galma (rtd), in an interview with our reporter, called on the federal government and the military to stop paying lip-service to the plight of serving and retired workers.
He said: “There is no need to be paying lip service to whatever is called Remembrance Day. We come out and do ceremony and return to our offices while all the people in the services and those retired are not satisfied.
“But at the end of the day, those we claim to be remembering, some who are still surviving or those who are wounded, would be left alone to the suffering just because of bureaucracy.
“That is what is happening. Bribery and corruption has eaten deep into all the facets of our lives. At the end of the day, you will find that a widow trying to claim her husband’s things will always be made to suffer.”
DAILY TRUST.
