By Afolabi Oyekunle.
President Bola Tinubu
The Federal government has been urged to extend gratuity package for Federal Civil Servants to all CPS retirees who retired from 2007 to date.
The call is coming from a Public Affairs Commentator and National Development Enthusiast, Mr. Shatami Turaza Bumba.
Mr Turaza Bumba said this while reflecting on the recent approval by the Federal Executive Council to restore gratuity for Federal Civil Servants retiring from 2026.
He said the restoration is a commendable and historic milestone in Nigeria’s public service and reflects a government willing to reform and improve workers' welfare.
Mr. Turaza Bumba said while it deserves celebration and win for future retirees, there is a critical administrative oversight that demands urgent reconsideration: the fate of the "missing middle," the dedicated civil servants who retired under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) between 2007 and 2025 and have been left out of this directive.
He said while the Federal Government deserved commendation for the bold step to restore gratuity, however, policy must not only be right; it must be completely just. A reform that secures the welfare of tomorrow's retirees but ignores the suffering of yesterday's veterans remains fundamentally incomplete.
"As a citizen deeply invested in equity and national development, I am compelled to highlight why extending this policy retroactively is not just a moral imperative but an economic and institutional necessity. Here is why the Federal Government must kindly reconsider and backdate this policy:
*1. The Core Inequity and Institutional Fairness:*
The current trajectory creates an arbitrary division among patriots who dedicated their lives to the same nation. We now have three classes of retirees:
* *Pre-2004 Retirees:* Received gratuity.
* *Post-2026 Retirees:* Will receive gratuity.
* *2007-2025 Retirees:* Denied and left out.
This means the 2007-2025 cohort is being inadvertently penalized purely by the timing of their retirement, not by the quality or duration of their service. A unified nation should have a unified reward system for its servants.
*2. The "Pioneer Penalty" of the 2004 Pension Reform:*
The retirees of 2007-2025 were the "guinea pigs" of the Pension Reform Act of 2004. They bore the brunt of the system's teething problems, delayed government remittances, reconciliation bottlenecks, and the psychological shock of a mid-career transition. It defies administrative justice to force this specific cohort to absorb all the frictional pains of a flawed transition, only to exclude them from the structural corrections (restored gratuity) implemented now that the system's deficiencies are officially recognized.
*3. Deferred Compensation, Not a Privilege:*
In public administration, gratuity is not a political gift; it is deferred compensation. It is a lump-sum reward for decades of unblemished loyalty. When a civil servant who retired in 2023 is denied gratuity, while their colleague retiring in 2026 receives it, the system implies that the 2023 retiree's years of identical service are worth less. True equity demands "equal pay for equal work," extending fully to terminal benefits.
*4. The "Double Jeopardy" of Macroeconomic Realities:*
The 2007-2025 retirees face a severe double jeopardy. First, they were denied a lump-sum safety net upon exiting service. Second, the monthly CPS payouts they receive have been aggressively cannibalized by persistent inflation, currency depreciation, and the rising cost of living over the last decade. A retroactive gratuity payment is not merely a bureaucratic correction; it is an urgent economic bailout for a highly vulnerable demographic whose purchasing power has been decimated.
*5. The Healthcare Crisis and Life Expectancy:*
Old age comes with inevitable health challenges. Without the financial buffer of a lump-sum gratuity, many 2007-2025 retirees have been unable to afford critical medical care, leading to avoidable mortality among our senior citizens. Restoring their gratuity serves as a direct health safety net, allowing them to manage age-related ailments with dignity rather than relying entirely on overstretched family members.
*6. Boosting the Morale of the Active Civil Service:*
The active civil service watches how a nation treats its elderly. When current workers see the 2007-2025 retirees living in penury despite years of honest labor, it breeds desperation. It fuels the temptation for corruption, as workers seek to "secure their own future" by illicit means. Backdating this gratuity will send a powerful message to today’s workforce: _The Nigerian state is faithful, and honest service pays._
*7. Direct Economic Stimulus at the Grassroots:*
Paying these arrears is not money lost; it is money injected directly into the local economy. Retirees do not hoard funds offshore; they spend their money on local healthcare, feeding, housing, and supporting their dependents. This massive injection of liquidity will stimulate small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the 774 Local Government Areas, driving grassroots economic recovery.
*8. The Social Contract and "Renewed Hope" Legacy:*
By restoring gratuity for 2026 retirees, the government implicitly admits that the standalone Contributory Pension Scheme is insufficient to guarantee post-service dignity. If it is insufficient for a 2026 retiree, it is logically impossible for it to be sufficient for a 2015 retiree. Including this "missing middle" aligns perfectly with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s "Renewed Hope" agenda, cementing a legacy of profound compassion, justice, and listening to the cries of the masses.
*9. Precedents in Retroactive Correction:*
There is a strong precedent in Nigerian public administration for backdating financial benefits to correct systemic imbalances. Whenever salary structures are reviewed or minimum wage acts are passed, arrears are frequently calculated and paid to ensure no worker is disenfranchised. Correcting a structural pension flaw should follow this same noble precedent.
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