2027: Judge me by my records, Tinubu tells Nigerians

President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday in Abuja challenged Nigerians to judge his administration strictly by its record of delivery.

This was as he declared the commencement of a minimum pension guarantee of N52,500 monthly for 173,209 retirees. He also launched a free healthcare initiative for low-income pensioners, saying the initiative fulfilled a 22-year-old legal promise that four previous presidents had left unmet.

The President stated this when he launched the Presidential Pension Security Initiatives at Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

Tinubu, who was represented by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, also told opposition figures seeking to unseat him in the January 2027 presidential election to present their own records on pension delivery rather than campaign on promises.

He said, “Please judge me by my record in this election. As governor of Lagos State, when the local government allocations were withheld, the state and the local government did not collapse. Instead, the state grew, and the local government blossomed. And as President, arrears and pensions were raised, and credit was opened to guarantee minimum pension.”

Speaking of the opposition, he said, “Do not listen to what they promise. Promises are free. Look at what they did when they were in power in the past. Some of them were even governors, and one of them was vice president of this country for eight years. So let them answer three questions: Which retiree did you guarantee? Which pensioner did you insure? And which floor did you erect for them to stand on?”

The President defended his 2023 decision to remove fuel subsidy and to unify the foreign exchange rate, describing them as choices made in the national interest.

“I said three words that no President before me had dared to say: subsidy is gone. They said those three words would finish me. I said them anyway, because a leader who is afraid of the truth has no business asking for your mandate,” he said.

He argued that the fiscal savings from the subsidy removal had been channelled directly to states and to ordinary Nigerians rather than lost to the system.

Citing the World Bank’s October 2026 report, the President said state revenues rose by 93 per cent in real terms between 2023 and 2025, with the capital share of state budgets climbing from 46 per cent to 61 per cent.

States, he said, had used those resources to clear pension debts, with over N1 trillion paid in legacy pension arrears so far.

On credit access, Tinubu explained that the National Credit Guarantee Company had, in little more than a year, unlocked N64bn in loans for over 174,000 borrowers, tens of thousands of whom had never held a formal loan, while the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation had extended N53bn in credit to more than 350,000 Nigerians across all 774 local governments, nearly six in ten of them women.

On the minimum pension guarantee under the Pension Reform Act, Tinubu noted that Section 71 of the 2004 Act and Sections 82 and 84 of its 2014 successor had both promised every contributor a guaranteed minimum pension, yet not a single naira had been paid under that guarantee across four administrations.

“A law that is never implemented is not a law. It is a lie with a stamp on it. Today, I dare say that lie ends here,” he declared, formally commencing the scheme to be administered by the National Pension Commission.

He also launched PenCare, a healthcare initiative funded by the pension industry, which will give low-income retirees access to essential healthcare without charge.

Cards were also symbolically presented at the event, with Tinubu announcing that in the coming months, he would personally place the first PenCare health access cards into the hands of pensioners at the Villa.

Director General of the National Pension Commission, Omolola Oloworaran, said the minimum pension of N52,500, validated by an actuary and backed by over N400bn in the Pension Protection Fund, would begin flowing immediately to all 173,209 eligible retirees.

She noted that 54 per cent of those eligible had retired from the private sector, with more than 65 per cent of all private sector retirees currently earning below the new minimum.

She called on private sector employers to contribute to the Pension Protection Fund, warning that the initiative’s sustainability depended on broad industry participation.

Oloworaran also announced that the pension industry had signed a memorandum of understanding with FSD Africa to build a $750m infrastructure fund, with the first $250m already in view, $200m committed by the pension industry and $50m to be sourced from development partners, with deployment set to begin before the end of the first quarter of 2027.

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Responding to questions from our correspondent on whether the timing of the launch, weeks before the presidential election, was politically motivated, Oloworaran said, “Is there ever a time that is bad for doing good for ordinary Nigerians? Every day you wake up, you try to see what you can do to improve lives.

“When we did the pension boost, there was no election. The N32,000 consequential increase was not election-driven. The NSITF retirees got their increase in January; should we have waited until December?

“If my work makes the president look good, then it means I’m doing what he has hired me to do. We don’t see elections. I don’t see competition. I’m just doing my work.”

He dismissed notions that the launch was timed to boost Tinubu’s re-election prospects.

She said the commission had been implementing pension reforms since July 2024 without regard to electoral cycles.

Responding to a question from our correspondent at a press conference at the State House following the launch, Oloworaran cited earlier reforms delivered outside the election window as evidence that the commission’s work was not politically motivated.

“When we did the pension boost, there was no election. The N32,000 consequential increase last year was election knocking on the door? No. Earlier this year, retirees of NSITF in January got over a 1,000 per cent increase. Should we have waited until December?” she said.

Oloworaran also disclosed that the launch had originally been scheduled for September, before being shifted to October for industry reasons, and only settled on Tuesday’s date thereafter.

According to her, “This was supposed to be done in September when we were getting the President himself to attend, but then the industry said we needed to do some other things and we shifted. Everything we are doing, we are just doing our work. We don’t see elections. I don’t see competition. I’m just doing my work.”

She, however, said the commission’s successes will enable Nigerians to make an informed case for the President’s re-election.

“If my work makes the President look good, then it means I’m doing what he has hired me to do,” she said, adding that “Whoever is saying that we are working for elections, they are not serious people. We are very serious in PenCom. We are not working because of elections. We are working because that’s the mandate that we have, and the president is supporting us 1,000 per cent.”

On the scheme, Oloworaran confirmed that all 173,209 eligible retirees earning below the N52,500 threshold would be uplifted to that floor immediately, with no discrimination between sectors.

“Every eligible retiree who earns below N52,500 will be uplifted to N52,500. There is no discrimination; if you are within the Contributory Pension Scheme, you will get it,” she said.

She added that the states had funded legacy pension payments of N1.07tn themselves, made possible by the increased FAAC allocations flowing from the Federal Government’s subsidy removal reforms.

“The Federal Government is not funding it. The states that want to fund it themselves, the reason they now have money to fund it is because of the reforms of Mr President, which have now released more money to the states,” she stated.

Responding to questions about pensioners in some states reportedly receiving as little as N5,000 monthly, Oloworaran said the figure, if confirmed, was unacceptable.

“Frankly, that’s a big shame. Receiving N5,000 is unacceptable,” Oloworaran said, adding that the commission was working with states to get them into the Contributory Pension Scheme, contribute to the Pension Protection Fund and put plans in place to review retirement benefits in line with inflation.

She noted that states were required to contribute to the Pension Protection Fund before their retirees could become eligible for the minimum pension guarantee, and said the commission was working out the modalities to bring states on board.

On the PenCare healthcare initiative, Oloworaran noted that the rollout had already begun ahead of the formal launch on Tuesday, with approximately 25,000 to 30,000 cards already distributed to low-income retirees through pilot testing.