More than 9,130 retirees under the Independent Unbonded Contributory Pension Scheme in Osun State have appealed to the state government to release their long-overdue retirement benefits. During a meeting held in Osogbo on Thursday, January 15, 2026, the retirees, who exited service between 2017 and 2025, highlighted the severe economic hardship caused by the non-payment of their entitlements.
The group includes former staff from the civil service, teaching service, local governments, and tertiary institutions, some of whom have waited nearly a decade for their retirement bonds.
The Osun State Government, through Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment Kolapo Alimi, attributed the current delay to an ongoing legal and administrative crisis regarding local government allocations.
Alimi explained that because the state is currently funding local government responsibilities like primary school salaries and pensions directly, the funds meant for bond releases have been stalled. In December 2025, the Supreme Court struck out a suit by the Osun State government seeking to compel the release of withheld local government funds, ruling that the state lacked the legal right to sue on behalf of the autonomous councils.
Despite these challenges, Governor Ademola Adeleke has made some progress, including the release of ₦4 billion in May 2025 to settle certain categories of arrears. However, the backlog remains substantial due to years of inherited debt and the current stalemate with the Federal Government over direct funding to elected local officials.
The IUCPS chairman, Moses Fayemi, noted that while secondary school retirees were paid up to June 2020 and other civil servants up to 2022, primary school retirees from as far back as 2017 remain completely unpaid.
The state government has urged the retirees to exercise patience while the legal impasse over local government administration is resolved. Governor Adeleke recently signed the 2026 Appropriation Bill into law, which includes provisions for human capital competitiveness and infrastructure, but the immediate liquidity for these 9,130 bonds depends on the resumption of regular local government revenue flows.
Retirees have signaled that they will continue to engage with the government as the 2026 electoral cycle begins to take shape.
