AQUINO Journal of Philosophy

Pension is the payment intended to sustain a worker after service life. It is made of deductions from the workers’ wages while at work. Successive administrations at all levels of government in Nigeria have found it difficult, and to a large extent, impossible to pay retirees their pension. This challenge has so far defied all the feeble attempts made to tackle it due to several reasons. Consequently, a great number of Nigerian senior citizens languish in penury and a lot of them have been sent to their untimely graves. This situation has made retirement a nightmarish concept in the public service lexicon of Nigeria. This paper analyzed both the historical, socio-economic and ethical angles of the subject matter through the use of primary and secondary sources of information. This paper found out that it is unethical not to pay pension because the labourer deserves his/her wages. Among others, corruption and lack of diligent enforcement of rules are the root causes of the problem. To mitigate and eventually solve this problem, this paper recommended for a better pay for workers and a more diligent enforcement of applicable laws. There is an urgent need for a thorough reform of the sector.

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