Nigeria: January 27, 2002

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Corruption continues to be a problem, despite arrests and investigations by the new government. Case in point are the pensions the 60,000 retired soldiers and officers of the army are supposed to receive. These are the men who spent their entire careers in the armed forces. Once the military dictatorship was overthrown in 1996, these pensions were seen as fair game for corrupt government officials. The government finally recognized the problem and, in 2001, authorized $26 million to take care of the unpaid pensions. That money appears to have disappeared as well and the retirees are still unpaid. A related concern of the government is unhappiness among active duty troops and national police over the pension issue.