Security was tightened around the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday as retired military officers gathered to press the Federal Government over long-delayed pension adjustments.
Armed soldiers moved around the area while security operatives positioned themselves strategically along roads leading to the ministry, with two armoured personnel carriers and more than 15 vehicles from various security agencies stationed at both ends of the roads near the protest site.
Personnel from the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Immigration Service and Vehicle Inspection Officers were all deployed around the protest area, and armed police and soldiers blocked the pensioners from converging in front of the ministry as originally planned, following an earlier confrontation between serving soldiers and the retired personnel when security operatives attempted to stop the veterans from assembling.
The protest was organised by retired Colonel Innocent Azubuike, who disclosed plans for the demonstration in an interview days earlier. He said President Tinubu approved a new pay increase for military personnel in November 2025 that came with a consequential pension adjustment for retirees, a move military authorities repeatedly acknowledged and thanked the President for at the time.
But Azubuike said that in July and August, the adjustment was suddenly not implemented, with authorities appearing to change their position as if the commitment should be forgotten .
He explained that despite military authorities acknowledging and thanking the President for the approval, the adjustment has still not been implemented.
Azubuike says the grievance has since compounded.
He alleged the situation had been further complicated by another salary increase announced for military personnel in August 2026, expected to take effect in September, and that although funds had reportedly been computed for that new increase, the consequential adjustment owed to retirees from the earlier November 2025 raise remained unresolved.
As of the time of filing, neither the Ministry of Defence nor the Military Pensions Board had responded to the pensioners’ demands, and the retirees remained at the venue pressing for the implementation of the outstanding adjustments.
Wednesday’s demonstration is the latest in a long-running pattern of friction between military retirees and the government over pension entitlements.
In 2022, the Retired Members of the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Coalition of Concerned Military Veterans picketed the Ministry of Defence over unpaid allowances, and similar protests recurred through 2024 and 2025 — including a barricade of the Finance Ministry in August 2025 by soldiers voluntarily discharged in 2023 and 2024, and another in December 2024 led by Azubuike himself over unpaid entitlements, which was partially resolved in January 2025 after the government paid 50 percent of what was owed and promised to settle the balance — a promise retirees say has again gone unfulfilled.
