By Jonas Odocha
There is a lot we can learn from the lower animals. The holy book admonishes fools to borrow knowledge from the ants which store up food during the good seasons in preparation for the periods of inclement weather. Reference will continuously be made to the success story of the social insects. These are those insects which live in colonies where they exhibit dignity of work through division of labour. Students of zoology have written classical dissertations on the anthill colony where the termites, as small as they are, have erected solid and aesthetic structures as homes for their inmates. The numerous workers, as the termite labourers are called, toil day and night to build and maintain the anthill. They also forage for food for the entire colony. The soldier ants, as their name implies, protect the colony from external aggressors or intruders. The queen termite is the egg-laying machine that ensures the production and nurturing of the offspring. Interestingly enough, these little creatures make provision for their aged and the weak in the colony. They transfer them to special chambers within the mound and nourish them with preferred diet until they die. This is a manifestation of an appreciation of their contributions when they were much younger, strong and active.
In the human society there are institutionalised schemes to cater for the aged, the incapacitated, the infirm and the unemployed. These come in different forms such as welfare schemes, pension schemes or health insurance schemes. In the industrialised or developed world, there are certain schemes that cater for the citizenry from cradle to the grave. In the less developed or developing world, as a consequence of national limitations occasioned by poverty or bad governance, such schemes are either non-existent or very poorly managed. It may therefore be expedient for us, once again, to borrow a leaf from the wise and caring little ants.
This essay is to bring to the fore our current attitude towards our heroes past, who laboured and toiled in our various offices or forces, to ensure that our society functioned or survived. An aspect of life and this journey through life which surpasses human understanding is its mystery. This is often compounded by the uncertainty of the very next second, no matter how much we pretend to foretell tomorrow. In this context therefore, how do we plan for tomorrow as workers who are still young and active, but who, with time and age, will become old and inactive? Considering the African culture of extended families and mutual responsibilities, even retirees and the old who are out of work, still have responsibilities hanging round their necks. This is the importance of a viable pension scheme as a cushioning effect towards the needs of the retired and the aged, during the period of limited abilities, limited activity and limited resources.
Conditions of employment vary from company to company and from government to government. In most cases, irrespective of initial attractive emoluments, most workers prefer to focus on the terminal benefits accruable to the employees. This is quite understandable, realizing that during the early working life much attention is paid to raising a family, having a house of one’s own, laying the foundation for investments and also extending helping hand to relatives and dependants. All these efforts eat deeply into savings made from salaries and sundry income. By the time the average worker attains the mandatory retirement age or status, or even when circumstances cause him to be compulsorily retired, he or she may not have acquired enough money or property or savings to last for the remaining part of his or her life, granting that the good Lord gives longevity. It is during this period of one’s life that a good pension scheme is either appreciated or missed.
Stories have been told of retirees dying barely six months after retirement. This is not an uncommon phenomenon because retirement from work is a unique experience that must be planned for and also the human body prepared to adjust to the necessary and concomitant change in biological rhythm. To illustrate, consider a man who over the years had been waking up at say 5.00am daily to prepare to go to work and stays in the office for about 8 hours and routinely returns home at about 7.00pm. The body must have developed a rhythm to accommodate this pattern of life. Upon retirement, the body would require to re-adjust to a new life style and this on its own is a major biological switch, which may introduce changes in body organs and tissues. This is the dilemma. This is a period one begins to look back to recount missed opportunities or prospects. A time one begins to regret bad decisions earlier made when the going was good and smooth. All these lamentations have a direct impact on the body and psyche of the affected retiree. Little wonder then that most of the retirees under this situation suffer from stress and stress-related illnesses. The journey through retirement is a long one and therefore adequate planning must be put in place to make this journey stress-free.
It is therefore more distressing when one hinges one’s retirement comfort on one’s pension and it is found to be elusive, delayed or denied. This simply means that the fall-back cushioning has been pulled away from the hopeful retiree. The tendency now is to begin to look back and despair, to have sleepless nights full of thoughts of missed opportunities and disappointments. One starts to apportion blames and to find faults in every thing said and done by family and friends. These are definitely unhealthy tendencies that impact negatively on the health and life of the pensioner. Like the social insects described earlier in this essay, we must show respect and understanding to our pensioners and avoid subjecting them to harrowing and disrespectful experiences.
In recent times there have been reported cases of unpaid pensions spanning several months and years. This situation has affected both Federal and State pensioners. Should this really be the case in a country abundantly blessed with human and natural resources? This is nothing but a sure sign of ingratitude to those who have laboured for their fatherland. There are also reported cases of shabby treatment meted out to some pensioners as soon as they commence submission of the initial paperwork for the payment of their pensions. This, sadly though, is even perpetrated by their own former colleagues in the offices they barely vacated a couple of weeks or months previously. These mostly junior officers and their collaborators, we are told, even demand gratifications from them before they can attend to their paperwork. This is a sure case of insensitivity and meanness, showing man’s inhumanity to fellow man. It is thus obvious from the above that the pensioner’s journey starts on a rather sour note from his or her own erstwhile constituency. Incidentally these ministry officials tend to forget that sooner, rather than later, they also will retire or be retired and become pensioners too. We need to show more love and a caring attitude towards one another, this is the summary of the law. May we learn to do unto others as we would they do unto us. This is the abiding tenet of any meaningful religion, and yet in Nigeria we pretend to be a highly religious society. Let us therefore try to practice what we preach, at least with our elderly fathers and mothers, who now need our attention and assistance.
There have also been reports of salaries of pensioners being delayed as a result of deliberate misapplication of their dedicated funds. In some instances delays are manipulated through wanting to verify their physical appearance prior to the preparation of their salaries, leading to most of them fainting and dying on long queues. But is there any truth in the allegation making the rounds that the fund managers divert these funds to high interest yielding fixed deposits? The various governments at Local, State and Federal levels may have to investigate this. On the other hand, if it is a question of utilizing such funds to settle contractors for jobs done under the capital vote, then it needs to be addressed even more seriously. The issue of salary delay or denial encourages corruption and other forms of sharp practices in any office environment. When a worker is owed salaries for upwards of six months, the employer is indirectly encouraging such a worker to seek other ways, legitimate or illegitimate, to earn a living. Under this scenario, the worker’s immediate source is definitely going to be the worker’s place of work. Fake claims, doctored documents, hiding of files to attract financial inducement to retrieve them, harsh reception of visitors and other such unwholesome office practices will creep in, thus damaging the reputation of the organisation. We must learn not to preach accountability and transparency in isolation. Tendencies and practices that encourage indiscipline in offices must be highlighted and investigated as a way of working towards their eventual reduction and elimination.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
Most of our pensioners live in penury. This should not be allowed to continue. There is the need to organize and institutionalize pre-retirement workshops for workers so that when they eventually retire, they will be enabled to readjust to a life of retirement. It is obvious that some of them were engaged in unprofitable investments as a result of inadequate exposure to sustainable investment portfolios. Some pensioners have been seen to continue with bad habits in the guise of investments such as pool staking and gambling, or outright frivolous expenditures. Pensioners need assistance and guidance to be able to manage limited sources of income. This is the more reason why their pensions ought not be denied them or delayed. However, whatever pensioners are experiencing now should be an eye opener for those still in regular employment. You must start to think of your retirement and plan towards it. Are you still fathering children at age 55 when you know you have barely 5 years to our statutory retirement age? Do you realise that such a child will be in high school when you turn 70 years, and might be expected to be doing school runs? Have you put up at least your own hut in the village as a fall-back to accommodate some of the property you have acquired in the city over the years? Have you identified the line of business that will suit your body and mind on retirement so as to keep busy and remain mentally alert? Which city or town or urban centre will best suit your family and business on retirement? Are you going to pay rents for office accommodation and for your residence when you leave office, and have you made provision for such or any other alternative? These questions and some more should agitate your mind as you start to approach the injury time in your place of work.
A healthy retirement package is the dream of every worker. May God continue to bless all the chief executives who have genuine plans for their ageing work-force. Above all, the ball rests on the potential retiree’s court. Your retirement is what you make of it. If you fail to plan for it, surely you have already planned to fail as a retiree. May God touch the hearts of our leaders so that they may show more love to their citizenry, especially the aged and spent forces, who now have to depend on hand-outs called pensions before they answer the call of their creator. May our pensioners never again go from pension to penury.