No fewer than 21 states have failed to implement the 65-year retirement age for teachers.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari, during the 2020 World Teachers Day, promised that teachers in Nigeria would enjoy a new retirement age.
The Federal Executive Council had in January 2021 approved the bill.
Buhari transmitted the bill to the National Assembly in June of that year.
Section 1 of the Act clearly states that Nigerian teachers shall compulsorily retire on attainment of 65 years of age or 40 years of pensionable service, whichever is earlier.
However, checks by our correspondent, following data obtained from the Nigeria Union of Teachers, revealed that only 15 states of the federation had implemented the new retirement age for teachers in their states.
The states include Delta, Kogi, Edo, Cross River, Abia, Borno, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Ondo, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Anambra, Kano, Osun and Ogun.
The states yet to implement the new retirement age are Lagos, Kwara, Zamfara, Niger, Taraba, Adamawa, Jigawa, Oyo, Imo, Rivers, Bauchi, Nassarawa, Ekiti, Gombe, Katsina, Plateau, Sokoto, Kaduna, Bayelsa, Enugu and Yobe.
The General Secretary of the NUT, Mike Ene, while speaking on the matter, said, “I pity those state governments that have not implemented the Act. Already the new retirement age for teachers is an Act of 2022, not even of 2023.
“It is a law now that once you are engaged as a teacher under the government, whether federal, state or local, your retirement age is 65 unless otherwise you decide to retire earlier than that.
“The law signed and sealed is now 65. It beats our imagination when some governors will start to refer an Act that has been signed to their state Houses of Assembly for an amendment. ”
