Recently, I had an encounter with an elderly man who spent over two hours lamenting on how our dear country seems to have abandoned old people. It was a touching experience by the time the octogenarian ended his plight in a bid to collect his pension. Such gory narration of suffering pensioners collapsing on queues for their meager pensions during verification exercises is no longer news. What have been the lot of these special people are the non-payment of their entitlements, omission of pensioners’ names from payroll, under-payment of pensioners and delayed pension payment, among others.
Life after active service should be a memorable one. Retirement should be with joy. Ironically, the public servant, having put in all his life into active service, would naturally be expected to be rewarded. His immediate returns during service are by ways of salaries and wages, while the long time rewards, after active service are through pensions and gratuities.
But that is not the case in the country. Due to the flaws experienced in pension administration in the past, the Pension Reform Act was put in place, for the payment of retirement benefits of employees in both the public and private sectors of the economy. Benefits of the new pension scheme are obvious in terms of the enormous deposit for the growth of banks through the placement of pension funds in fixed deposits and from more regular payment of pension entitlements of existing pensioners in the country
Under the new scheme, the use of accumulated funds makes it possible to purchase annuities from insurance companies by providing the needed tonic for insurance business in Nigeria. Stock-broking firms also stand to profit from the higher business volumes, which the increased transactions on retirement bonds, corporate bonds and equities that pension funds offers. Again, mortgage and property development firms are expected to experience greater profitable long-term opportunities for their real estates and commercial property development schemes, as an increased build-up of pension funds forces pension fund managers, to seek more and safer inflation-proof outlets for their investable funds.
The existing system whereby basic operations are carried out manually is archaic, manipulative and encourages sharp practices that had largely contributed to the failure envisaged for them. There is the need to make the new pension scheme to serve as a veritable platform that would allow genuine private sector actors take a lead while the government should provide the enabling environment and sound quality control mechanism. Apart from the agonising experience of the pensioners, the situation offers no comfort for workers, who cannot look forward to retirement with peace of mind. This was the bone of contention of the elderly man during my chat with him.
Many observers had expected a better pension arrangement to be in place. It is worrying that several years after the enactment of the Pension Reform Act, unfortunately the two major employers of labour in the country, the government and the organised private sector have been identified as major defaulters, following their inability to fully adopt and effectively operate the Contributory Pension Scheme.
To revamp and save the system, defaulters should be sanctioned. It is becoming clearer by the day that business ventures are badly run by state apparatus because of these observations. Those in charge of the administration of pension should be made to remember that retirement will be dawn on them too, sooner or later. There is, therefore, the moral burden on the need to adore the elderly and senior citizens, as this is what is obtainable in other climes.
Paying lip service to this sensitive national responsibility should stop while we must get things right. All those found guilty of fraudulent acts, as far as pension administration is concerned, should be sanctioned within the ambit of the law, to serve as deterrent to others. Retirees should not be left to suffer unnecessarily or die in the course of waiting for their benefits. They have their families to cater for and they have bills to settle. Many of their children are not forthcoming by way of help because they also require assistance to survive because of the biting economic situation. Paying pensioners their entitlement should not be seen as a favour or a liability, as the present arrangement suggests.
Senior citizens should be given utmost attention by the government. They should, therefore, no longer be treated as outcasts in the land. They are certainly not. Rather, they should be accorded dignity, respect and total care. This is what the nation must always give to our senior citizens. After all, they have labored, worked hard and served their fatherland. It is just equitable that they should be rewarded for their hard labour.
Sustainable social welfare programme should be put in place at both public and private sectors of our national life. Senior citizens should not be allowed to reap the fruit of their labour after death. They should not. We should certainly be up and doing when issues bordering our oldies are on the table. Our senior citizens deserve better care in the country.
