20 Retired Top Kaduna Officials Die Without Pensions — NUP
At least 20 retired high-ranking public officers in Kaduna State, among them former permanent secretaries, Secretaries to the State Government, and Heads of Service, have died without receiving their retirement benefits, the state branch of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has revealed.
Alhassan Musa, secretary of the NUP in Kaduna State, linked these deaths to persistent delays by the state government in settling outstanding pensions and gratuities. Many of the deceased, he said, had obtained court judgments directing payment of their entitlements, yet died before the orders were honoured.
Pensioners and workers disengaged from service had looked to recent years with optimism that long-standing arrears would finally be cleared. “We thought 2025 would be a year of hope and celebration for pensioners and those who lost their jobs in Kaduna State. But as the year progresses, that hope is gradually fading,” Musa stated.
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The union highlighted particular frustration over the state’s failure to apply a N32,000 pension adjustment for retirees still under the old Defined Benefits Scheme, an increment approved at federal level in 2025 for eligible pensioners. “We thought the governor would be among the first three to implement the N32,000 pension increase for those under the Defined Benefits Scheme, but our dream is dying slowly,” he added.
Musa also drew attention to the hardship faced by retirees enrolled in the Contributory Pension Scheme, where accrued rights and contributions remain unpaid in many cases. “Most of our contributory pensioners are also suffering in silence. Their tears are drying up, and the pain is now being borne by the heart because the body can no longer absorb the shock,” he said.
For many elderly retirees, monthly pensions represent their sole means of support, covering essentials such as food, medicine, and housing. Prolonged delays, the union maintains, have pushed vulnerable citizens into severe distress. “Our people are dying in silence. They are voiceless, helpless and hopeless. We are appealing to the governor to have mercy on them and act swiftly,” Musa urged Governor Uba Sani.
The challenge of unpaid retirement benefits in Kaduna State is not new. It stretches back over a decade, intensified by the shift from the Defined Benefits Scheme to the Contributory Pension Scheme, a reform driven nationally by the Pension Reform Act of 2004 and later amended. Kaduna, like several other states, struggled with the transition, accumulating arrears in government contributions to pension fund administrators and delays in computing terminal benefits for those who retired under the older system.
During the administration of former Governor Nasir El-Rufai between 2015 and 2023, the state introduced measures to overhaul the pension system, including biometric verification exercises aimed at removing ghost pensioners from the payroll. In 2020, Kaduna became one of the few states to establish a N30,000 minimum pension, a step intended to cushion retirees against economic hardship. Yet civil service rationalisation exercises during that period led to the disengagement of thousands of workers, adding significantly to the queue of those awaiting gratuities and other entitlements.
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Since taking office in 2023, Governor Uba Sani’s administration has publicly committed to addressing inherited liabilities. In 2025 alone, the state government announced releases totalling several billion naira towards gratuities, death benefits, and pension arrears, with payments directed through the Kaduna State Pension Bureau to verified retirees and families of deceased workers. Officials have described these disbursements as part of broader efforts to sanitise the system and honour obligations.
Despite these steps, the NUP insists that substantial backlogs remain, particularly for senior retirees and those under the contributory framework. Repeated protests by pensioners in 2025 underlined similar grievances, with groups demanding faster processing of claims and full remittance of accrued rights.
The union has consistently framed timely pension payment as both a legal duty backed by court rulings and statutory provisions and a moral responsibility towards citizens who devoted decades to public service. Continued delays, it warns, deepen the vulnerability of an ageing population already grappling with rising living costs and limited access to healthcare.