By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has demanded inclusion in the newly approved N70,000 monthly transport allowance for public servants, describing their exclusion as unjust and insensitive.
The union made the demand at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, October 28, 2026.
The N70,000 transport allowance, a six-month relief measure approved for serving public servants to start in November 2026, was negotiated between the Federal Government and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Comrade Godwin Abumisi, NUP National President, who was represented by Abdullahi Usman, Deputy National President, said pensioners who devoted their productive years to national service should not be neglected in palliatives designed to cushion rising cost of living.
Abumisi said pensioners also depend on public transportation to access hospitals, attend medical appointments, purchase food, and other essential items, stressing that many retirees survive on inadequate pensions with no other reliable source of income.
“Pensioners also depend on public transportation to access hospitals, attend medical appointments, purchase food, and other essential items,” he said.
The union also faulted organized labour for failing to protect the interests of retired workers during the negotiations, describing the omission as evidence of “insensitivity of civil servants to the plight of their former colleagues, now retired, whom they will eventually join.”
NUP argued that the welfare of workers and pensioners should not be treated as competing interests, warning that every serving worker will one day become a pensioner. The union called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene.
The pensioners also raised concern over the non-implementation of the N25,000 monthly palliative promised by the Federal Government under the October 2, 2023 Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the NLC and TUC.
Under the MoU, the government agreed to pay N25,000 monthly for three months — N75,000 in total — to 15 million households, including vulnerable pensioners.
Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress, TUC, has rejected the N70,000 transport allowance, demanding instead a substantive salary increase to N300,000 for the lowest-paid worker.
