Nigeria Content Online

Across Europe, governments are battling with their citizens over plans to increase retirement age.

Over the past few
weeks, workers in France have staged street protests and grinding
workers strikes all aimed at stopping government’s new pension plan
which will make workers stay longer in active service if they are to
enjoy full retirement benefit.

The actions of the
French workers got me thinking: “What a paradox?” If this retirement
age increment policy were introduced in Nigeria, Wouldn’t all the
workers jump at the offer?

I guess it is the
case of one man’s meat being another man’s poison. The plight of
retirees in Nigeria, like most African countries is different from the
Europeans’.

While France burnt,
I met with a 58-year-old civil servant -though he looked 10 years
older. He juxtaposed the pension scenarios in Nigeria with France’s.

He told me French
workers were like a spoilt brat whining about being chauffeured to
school in Hummer rather than Limousine. He said he would rather stay
longer at work than retire in two years.

In Europe, there
are jobs and therefore it is not a privilege to be employed. Workers
rights are protected by functional laws. The governments do not wait
till workers go on strike before they are paid. Moreover, retirees are
never dragged from Yenogoa or Azare to Abuja so they can be counted
before they are paid.

Over there,
retirees are senior citizens. Their allowances are wired into their
bank accounts before month end. They board public buses and trains for
free, and get discounts in some malls. EU workers are eager to retire
and become senior citizens. So, they will revolt if any government
attempts to extend their stay at work even by one day.

But that is not the
case in Nigeria. Here, retirement is so dreaded that workers nearing
the age lose weight from the high blood pressure they incur from
thinking about life after active service; and the understanding of this
is the beginning of wisdom for almost all of them.

In Nigeria,
retirees get less pay and that automatically makes them dependants in a
very harsh economy. Their reduced income sets off a cascade of ill
events in their lives. First, they lose their homes in the city,
because the high rent was not considered in computing their allowances.
Thereafter, they move down to the village – hopefully, he has (stolen)
enough money to build a house there while still working. In the
village, there is no electricity, so he must run a power generator if
he must watch the 9 o’clock news.

Years pass and all
his savings dry up. He can no longer pay hospital bills and relies on
traditional healers and prayers to survive malaria. The frequent trips
to Abuja for screening would begin to take a toll on him and the rest
would become a requiem.

Towards the late
1980’s – when it became obvious that government no longer cared about
the retirees – workers began employing corrupt measures to ensure they
stayed in active service as long as possible.

Workers started
sneaking out their birth certificates from their files to replace them
with an adjusted “declaration of age” that will make them officially
younger. That way, they will stay longer in active service and not
retire to die like most retirees did then.

This method was
passed down generations of workers and right now, I dare say more than
half the government workers in Nigeria have falsified their ages. Most
workers would tell you they are 30 if they are actually 37.

Till date, job
seekers, adjust their legal age to appear officially younger to first
of all be employable and then stay longer at work.

Although it is
difficult to tell the age of an African from looks alone, during my
national youth service days, I remember counting up to hundred men that
were beyond reasonable doubt, above 30 years who shaved their
moustaches to justify their legal claims of 30years or younger.

If carbon dating
were to be conducted on Nigerian workers, one would find amazing
variations between the declared age and actual age.

But like my
about-to-retire friend told me, the Nigerian worker’s attitude is based
on “wisdom” acquired through years of suffering government neglect.