Okey Elebe writes on the pathetic condition of retirees, especially in Ebonyi State and makes a case for government intervention for the senior citizens
The trajectory of Nigeria’s sociopolitical system offer unlimited advantages to some groups and individuals through discriminatory policies and statutes. This accounts for the differences and variations in remunerations within establishments and amongst composite professional groups.
The foregoing narrative illustrate the tragedy of Nigerian civil servants who, through discriminatory practices, have been eminently subjected to dehumanising lives of penury, squalor, disease and sorrow.
With wages ignobly far too low to maintain a recognisable human existence, civil servants wallow in excruciating servitude, despicable and depressing exit packages.
The question that agitate the mind of men of conscience is: what is the worth of the retiree?
Retirement is a significant phase in the life of workers. It represents the final shift from regular occupation to the pull out from employment after meritorious service.
Life changes in numerous ways at this phase and it also has impactful exertion on society at large. The socioeconomic implications of retirement are fundamentally significant. Whereas government retires workers to relieve economic tension and ensure sustainable service, workers give up their jobs due to physical defects or mental retardation caused by advancement in years.
Retirement describes the imminent and attendant economic, social, physical, emotional, mental, psychological and financial retreat of employees from job. A comprehensive socioeconomic transformation takes place in the life of retirees.
It leads to a decline in post-retirement living standard because earned income stops. It leads to sedentary lifestyle, malnutrition, the erosion of resources and depression.
An analogy that effectively captures the retirees circumstance is that of the chicken that lays eggs for the chicken farmer. Once the farmer discovers that the layers’ resourcefulness is exhausted, he quickly disposes them purposely to be slaughtered.
In this context, the pensioners’ resourcefulness has been completed drained, emasculated and made unfit for any further meaningful endeavour.
All through their productive lives, the government exploited them with all manner of duties and assignments. At the end, they are written off with despicable monthly handouts called pension. The inconsequential terminal payment called gratuity is a mockery of what compensatory emolument should make up.
Retirees who still enjoy a presence on this earth through the infinite grace of Almighty God, deserve to be honoured for their invaluable contributions to the successes of consecutive governments, and the growth and development of the state.
They have intrinsic and inalienable rights to a life of goodness, enhanced access to good health, a decent standard of living and material comfort in a country whose currency’s purchasing power is plumeting at a rate that defies economic theory.
At the root of the despicable living standard of retirees is the disdainful implementation of minimum wage in Nigeria which institutionalise the conspiracy and superiority concept against workers.
Conspiracy, discrimination and deprivation are deliberate impoverishment factors. Consequently, governments must commit towards attaining a world in which eliminating poverty and ensuring sustainable welfare for all.
Recently, some state governments, in their compassionate and benevolent spirit, approved a dignified improvements and worthwhile provisions for retirees despite the statutory adjustments approved by the federal government.
On behalf Ebonyi State pensioners,
I sincerely pay warm compliments and gratitude to the transformative Governor of Ebonyi State, Builder Prince Ogbonnaya Nwifuru, for reaching out to pensioners through a heart enamoured with the spirit of love, kindness and magnanimity.
The moving of the spirit led to the clearing of the pensions and gratuities of retirees that had been maliciously withheld for eight years. During those locust years, the extant provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), which stipulated that pensions should be increased, were completely disregarded.
I pray that it may behove Your Excellency to occasionally extend to retirees palliatives, as well as end of year, Christmas and Easter bonuses to the level the Spirit of God may lead you. This is incontrovertibly within your capacity because we know you are kind, humane, and compassionate toward pensioners.
By Okey Elebe, immediate past editor, Nigerian Patriot Newspapers, and former Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State
