The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has declared its intention to stage a nude protest if the government fails to address the welfare of its members.
The National President of the union, Godwin Abumusi, stated this at a news briefing in Abuja on Friday, Febraury 9.
He said pensioners in Nigeria were living in abject poverty and suffering caused by delays and disparities in the payments of pensions.
“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. If they like, they will arrest us and say, ‘Why did you go naked on the streets?’ he stated.
He said that the union was demanding a review of the national minimum pension in line with the proposed new minimum wage for workers.
He described the current minimum pension “as a mockery of the dignity and value of pensioners.”
“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,” he said.