Over 6,000 Nigeria Airways Retirees Appeal for Return to Defined Benefit Scheme

Chinedu Eze

More than 6,000 retirees of the liquidated, Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) under the aegis of Association of Airways Retired Workers of Nigeria (AARWN), have appealed to the federal government to return them to the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) like their counterparts in the other sectors of the economy.

The retirees said if they were returned to the scheme, it would enable them to get their pensions throughout their life.

Defined Benefit Scheme is a type of pension plan where the pay-out is based on a formula that considers the employee’s employment, salary history and age. The scheme pays out a secure income for life, which increases each year in line with inflation.

The former NAL workers made this known in a letter they issued, dated May 20, 2024 and signed by the Chairman and Vice Chairman Stephen Onuh and Ahmed Sulugambari respectively.

The letter stated that the retirees were seeking audience with the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, to properly inform him of their plight and seize the opportunity to express their displeasure over the attitudes of some of the staff of the ministry in response to their predicament.

The retirees, who reinforced their quest with the letter to the minister had in December last year petitioned President Bola Tinubu, to press home their demands for inclusion in the DBS, saying the retired staff were until the liquidation of the airline in 2004 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, enrolled in the scheme.

They claimed that they were controversially removed from the scheme by the government after the liquidation of the airline.

The letter dated December 5, 2023 and addressed to Tinubu, insisted that pensioners were never paid off, but paid till they die.

The retirees also argued that the N45 billion severance package, which some of its members benefited from in December 2018 was part of their accumulated 10 years pension arrears suspended by the federal government after the liquidation of the defunct national carrier in 2004.

The petitioners comprised those who had retired from the airline before the national carrier was liquidated by the government in 2004.