Retired Comptrollers-General and Deputy Comptrollers-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) will receive salaries for life following an approval by President Bola Tinubu, Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has disclosed.
The policy marks a major change in the retirement benefits of former heads of the service, who previously received pensions of about ₦130,000, according to the minister.
Tunji-Ojo made the disclosure on Friday at the closing ceremony of the Specialised Border Control and Immigration Management System (BCIMS) training at the Immigration Service headquarters in Abuja.
He said the approval was part of a broader package of welfare measures introduced by the Tinubu administration for serving and retired personnel across services under the Ministry of Interior.
“Previously, CGs had a pension of about N130,000, it was not encouraging. But what did the president do? He signed, and approved salary for life for CGs and DCGs,” the minister said.
He also credited the President with addressing longstanding promotion delays in the services, saying at least 50,000 personnel had advanced in rank and position within three years.
“It has never happened before, but Tinubu did it,” Tunji-Ojo said, adding that the administration had also increased recruitment, salary levels and allowances, including hazard and peculiar allowances.
The minister argued that improved welfare was intended to strengthen personnel commitment and institutional performance, insisting that the government expected officers to reciprocate the support through better service delivery.
“And all he asks from us in the service is to do our jobs well and make Nigerians happy. Everything we have asked of him, he has done. This is the least we can do,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo described the lifetime salary approval as evidence of the President’s commitment to the long-term welfare of security and immigration personnel, including those who had completed their service.
He further said the administration was focused on establishing institutions capable of functioning beyond the tenure of the current government.
“President Bola Tinubu has never been about the immediate, but the future,” he said, likening the administration’s policies to planting seeds for future prosperity.
The minister maintained that government policies should be assessed not only by their immediate benefits but also by the institutions and structures they leave behind.
However, the statement did not specify the financial terms of the lifetime salary arrangement, the amount beneficiaries would receive, the eligibility conditions or the projected cost to public finances.
The disclosure comes amid broader efforts by the Federal Government to improve the welfare, staffing and operational capacity of services under the Interior Ministry.
