… Over Rising Cost Of Living
PENSIONERS across Nigeria have threatened to walk on the streets naked, if their welfare does not improve significantly any time soon.
The National President of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Godwin Abumusi, said in Abuja on Friday, that his union will take the action to draw the attention of the world to the plight of pensioners.
“I am going to lead Nigerian pensioners naked,” he said. “I mean, when we are going to protest, we are going to go naked on the street, so that the world will see the pensioners in Nigeria are demonstrating naked,’’ Abumusi said.
“If they like, they will arrest us and say, ‘Why did you go naked on the streets?’’.
Abumusi said that the plight of pensioners is hard to comprehend.
“In Nigeria, governments don’t think about the poor people. They only think about themselves. Otherwise, how can a pensioner in Enugu receive as low as N450. How can this be?, he lamented.
Pensioners are also calling for a review of the national minimum pension.
“We wish to propose the sum of N100,000 as the national minimum pension to the tripartite committee in line with the proposed N200,000 minimum wage by the NLC (Nigeria Labour Congress); as anything short of that will incur the wrath of the pensioners who are hard hit by the prevailing economic hardship.”
