Nollywood actress Olaide Adedeji reveals her favourite things to Kehinde Oluleye
Favourite shoe
Sam Eledema, Michael Kors
Favourite bag
Michael Kors, Gucci
Favourite wrist watch
Michael Kors,
Favourite Nigerian designer
Frank Osodi and Karen Millen
Favourite Perfume
Burbberry and Gucci
Favourite pet
Teddy bear
Favourite quote
Taste your words before you say them
Favourite car
Infinity Fx35
Favourite book
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Favourite
holiday spot
Obudu
Cattle ranch
RAINY season takes a particular toll on the feet. Many problems may occur with feet such as blisters, heel pains, moles, cracked heel and particularly bad odour. Foot problems, especially bad odour and infection, are big risks during the rainy season.
And while you might think that covering them up protects them from the rain, the fact is that the damp weather combined with cold temperatures are a potentially hazardous combination for the feet.
People and women in particular do not give much thought to preventative foot wellness, only taking care of unsightly foot problems after they develop. With just a little bit of care and caution, you can keep your feet in top shape. You should monitor your feet; they need more care in the rainy season.
Tips on how to help your feet survive the rains.
After walking through murky water, wash your feet with medicated soap, rinse with water and later soak in warm salt water solution.
Always keep your feet warm, don’t get your feet wet in the rain and if such happens, follow the procedure above.
Spray your feet with antiseptic foot spray for protection against bad odour; odour occurs from bacteria and sweat glands reaction, especially if your shoes are damp or airless shoes.
Use quality lotion to keep the skin of your feet soft and moist, but don’t put any lotion in between your toes.
Smoking decreases blood supply to your feet.
Never walk barefoot or in extremely flat shoes.
Soak your feet in warm water for about 20 minutes at least once a week. It is helpful for blood circulation to the feet relaxation and tenderness after long walk.
For protection against callous dead cells under foot, scrub your heels once a week or when having your bath.
To prevent fungal and parasitic infections, keep feet clean and dry, and do not walk bare foot on sand.
Keep your nails trimmed, whether artificial or not.
Do not tear your cuticles; this will break the layer of the skin and cause injury. Instead, look for cuticles remover cream or cuticles clip.
Cosmas Maduka, chairman of Coscharis Group, was the archetypal conservative businessman until he hit the headlines over his entanglements with another businessman, Ifeanyi Uba. In this interview with Rita Ohai he touches on their unresolved dispute, his business philosophy, attitude to politics and sundry matters.
During the (former President Olusegun) Obasanjo administration you received some major waivers. As a result, speculation arose that you played the role of financier for political activities from the background?
People are entitled to their opinions. The truth is that an industrialist like me cannot be completely neglected in the economy. You can get your voice to count by the things you do. Mother Teresa was not the greatest business woman in the world but she influenced politics. Nelson Mandela is not the richest man but he is an icon because of the things he has contributed to humanity.
I play my own role as an industrialist and philanthropist. It is my own way of running a non-governmental organisation (NGO).
There was this controversy that generated a lot of news on the relationship between Ifeanyi Uba and you. Cases of fraud and political manipulations were cited. What really happened?
The case of Capital Oil and Coscharis is a very painful one that frankly, I do not like to discuss. It is like talking about having children with a woman that is barren. People from my area do apprenticeship and build from there; it is part of our social welfare, almost like slavery. We have always been our brother’s keeper and profit is usually not the driving motive.
So this kid brother of mine (Uba) approached me in 2011. I was sitting in my office when my phone rang, and he told me about how some people were trying to take over his business. He said things that were related to me and invited me to see his structures. Of course, I could not turn him down. I went there and I was impressed with what I saw.
Many of the boys from my state mismatch funds. They take short-term funds and put in a long term project by borrowing heavily. That is a way to commit suicide because interest rates can kill you. This was what Uba did and the first advice I gave him was to sell his facility to pay down his loan so that he can start all over again. I took him to different banks trying to get support for him because I could not let his business go down. If you go to Capital Oil’s jetty, you will not believe it is a structure created by a Nigerian but he had borrowed so much. In the process, I got what I did not expect because he did not keep to the commitment that he made to me.
I think he (Uba) has a problem and only he knows what led him to do what he did. My concern is that he let me down and messed things up between me and my bankers. We are still on the matter. Talks are going on and he made a public apology at the Senate hearing. We are negotiating with AMCON to take over his business so that he can pay the money back to me.
All the youthful exuberance he displayed were bad ideas people gave to him and he realised later that it was not the right thing to do because you do not hurt people who go beyond reasoning to help you. It creates pain in my heart but the matter will hopefully be resolved. What is important is that I have learnt my lesson.
He has been saying that your motives are politically related such that you seek to stop his political ambition, what is your stance on this?
Ifeanyi as a person is a boy with too many ideas and I think he needs somebody like me to play a role in his life in order to remodel him. Most of the things he does are not obtainable. He has some very weird and crazy ideas and I have told him to his face. We have an adage in Igbo that literally means that if you have not been able to cultivate the small portion of land in front of your house, you cannot be called ‘the king everyone is afraid of’. It will be wrong for anybody to advice Ifeanyi to go into politics with so much debt hanging over his head. He is a brilliant boy that started a business but he has mismanaged his funds. He needs to sort that out first and foremost. He has political connections and I do not care about that. Can you say that because you have political connections, you no longer owe a person you borrowed from? Will any law court say you do not owe when there is “clear evidence that you did not pay? It is not sustainable.
Somebody needs to talk to you directly and say, ‘hey guy, clean your mouth, it is smelling’, and it is only the person who loves you that will say that to you. All the other people will see you carrying shit on your cloth and be calling you a king and saying that you are looking good. That is how some people deceived one king in the Bible and he started dancing naked.
When Ifeanyi told me he wanted to enter politics, I asked him why he would want to do such a thing. I have no ambition whatsoever of going into politics. I am a businessman with no interest in it at all. In fact, you will never see me in any political gathering. I want to be known as a businessman and stay focused there. I want to be respected as an entrepreneur who is much focused. One thing I have always feared is distraction and I do not have a television in my house.
Has there been any move by leaders and village elders to reconcile you both and is there some progress in this direction?
The village elders tried initially but Ifeanyi was not interested because as far as he is concerned, does the village chief know what N10 billion is all about? It is something they cannot conceptualise. The idea is that he is going to pay, that is what he has always said. We talk and his position is that he will keep his promise and that is all.
Coscharis as a conglomerate is not a quoted company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, what is the reason for the hesitation?
It is all a matter of choice by the owners of the business. It is a model we have chosen to adopt. If you go to the United States of America, I can show you many family businesses that are not publicly quoted. The owners of the business may decide to hold their stock and get family members to manage the business.
Of course, the right thing to do would be to go to the stock market and invite other Nigerians to share from the wealth you have created by buying into the company. We thought about it four years ago and by the time we were preparing to go to the market, it crashed. And we felt it was not appropriate to go at that time because we did not want to throw away the value we have created for nothing.
There are many things that drive people to go to the stock market. The first is security. You can run a business where you think that there will be some political risk for you to run the company and hold the stock on a private equity basis. If you get the company quoted, it becomes Nigeria’s company and if your political opponent or whoever decides to destroy the company, he will be undoing the country. That is why people like us stay away from politics due to the enmity it causes.
The other thing that can drive you to go public is to safeguard your equity because sometimes you need additional money to expand your business. Coscharis has no such problem and we are not desperate. We saw a lot of people packaging emptiness, companies with no history and just speculations to sell on the stock market between 2008 and 2009 and they ripped people off.
A lot of people lost a lot of money and confidence in the Nigerian stock market. So we think it is not the right time to go but ultimately that is what we are going to do. When it will happen is something we do not know yet. Sometimes it is also good to manage things the way we do in a very conservative manner. When you go public, it gives a sense of confidence but sometimes you may have professionals who may not view things the way an owner would.
You cited Coscharis as being a strong company, how are you able to source for funds to run such a large organisation without public input?
We retain a lot of our earnings in the business and looking at our antecedent, we have been able to build unprecedented credit rating within the banking industry. I do not think there are many organisations on our scale that borrows internationally and locally under a negative pledge like we do. No bank led to asks us for collateral to us. Shumitomo Bank of Japan, for example, funds us with $40 to $50 million without collateral.
We are an owner-driven business that retains a lot of our profit and we pay our bills. For us, these are areas we pride ourselves in and because we have unlimited credit, it does not make us crazy enough to spend money like a child in a candy shop.
So, frankly, liquidity is not a problem for us, our challenge is finding profitable businesses that we can nurture. We believe in slow and steady growth and we are not in a hurry to impress any man. We want to play in the first five of any area of business you find us in.
As a pioneer in the automobile industry, why have you not pushed for the local manufacturing of cars?
Locally manufacturing a car is a concept people have but they do not understand what it entails. It is a policy that should be driven by the state. The government must be prepared to industrialise Nigeria by providing power. God, when He decided to create this world, started by saying ‘Let there be light.’ Everything we need to empower this country is available but we need energy because it is an indispensible element of success.
But with major players like you in this sector, can you not push government to promote industrialisation?
Yes, we are approaching them and we have been singing this music. I am not involved in politics, so the leaders of this country must provide the enabling environment for industrial development and growth. Eighteen years ago, we went into Ghana to make investments and till today I have never bought a generator there. Their government did not push us to do it but we saw an opportunity, a service gap and as an entrepreneur, I chose to fill the gap. Money follows service.
In Nigeria today, we have a 160 million workforce that do not have good jobs. In other words, there is a clear competitive economic labour cost. If they provide power, many companies that are running factories in other countries would want to come and take advantage of the competitive manpower so that they can beat their opponent in other climes. This is something we are not taking advantage of.
Lagos State today asks us to provide capital contribution as what they call ‘thirty percent for infrastructural development’. Sometimes, it could be as much as N400 million. I just built an office in Lekki and we paid over N120 million to Lagos for ‘infrastructural development but I am putting the road in that place today. Lagos did not build any road there and we have sunk boreholes.
If you want to do business in Nigeria today, you would have spent 40 percent of your capital that should have gone into production in providing infrastructure. These are hurdles that make businesses not to thrive.
Why should we be focusing on building automobiles and airplane when we have climatic conditions that make farming profitable? We have very fertile ground that we are not developing. Calculate the amount of money we have spent importing rice and wheat. Why can we not grow these things here when nature and everything is in our favour and we have the competitive advantage?
Go to Abuja and you will see banana that is imported from Cameroun. That is madness! The leaders do not see clearly what they need to do. They have mismatched priorities and we need to stop this idea of calling for the manufacture of cars. Let’s manufacture food first.
I set up a motorcycle-roller-chain manufacturing industry in Maza-Maza that we shut down because I had to import power and import the diesel that would run the generator. When we finished, a guys who is going to buy this product is getting it from an importer at 40 percent cheaper than your cost price.
Manufacturing is not a status symbol, it is an economic advantage. My machines are still there and they are not running anymore. I would have gone down to the village if I had continued with that manufacturing. You do not do things to make people happy and we are saying we should start automobile industry.
With your constant reference to the food industry, are you planning to get involved in agriculture?
Yes, we just acquired about 2,700 hectares of land in Anambra State. We plan to cultivate raw materials for the factory we want to set up. It is an agro-allied industry that should create about 3000 jobs when carried out successfully.
People are importing palm oil in this country and it is a shame. Malaysia came to us to take the seedling for palm kernel and today contributes over 25 percent of their gross domestic earnings. In Nigeria, all of us are wearing white shirt and coming to Lagos to look for car manufacturing industry. We are not serious-minded people.
Your business relationship with the Japanese is well, known but we have noticed your recent affinity for the Chinese, why the shift?
I saw clearly that China is a sleeping giant that has woken up. I was a kid when the Japanese started their economic revolution and we used to laugh at them.
I saw the Honda Civic for the first time and we used to mock it because it looked like a box but today they have taken the world by storm. However, the Japanese could not find their confidence as they would produce something and write ‘Made in England’ on their label. Over time, they have become known as the original while Taiwan serve as the fake version of the product, the same thing with China. But give China another 10 years and you will be amazed. China saw an advantage in Africa very early and the next world economic miracle is going to happen in Africa obviously.
The West has reached their climax and their economy is not growing by anything more than two percent but the African economy is growing at about seven percent. Imagine this happening for the next ten years. Everybody is having Africa’s strategic programme in mind.
If Nigeria’s economy keeps growing the way it is, by 2020 our economy will be bigger than South Africa and by 2050, if we maintain the same growth, we would have the twelfth richest country in the world.
Once electric power is put in place, you will see unprecedented economic revolution taking place in this country. Look at what happened in the telecommunications sector. The capacity is there. Other countries are not giving birth to children the way we are. Africa is still producing babies like dogs.
If we fix this country, people like me would be multi-billionaires because I have sachet water to sell to 300 million people. Even if I sell at N10, multiply it by 300 million people and you will know what I am sitting on. This is a goldmine, the Chinese know this and are planning for it.
It will happen in your generation. I am sixty-four and in another six years, I will be seventy. If I am asking for 100 years that would be like asking for third-term but people like you can still get to benefit from it in your sixties or seventies.
We have seen the gradual dominance of China in the African economic space, are they better allies than the United States and Europe?
It all depends. You cannot say they are better allies because the biggest minus the Chinese have is the one of trust. No matter how big you are, you cannot access credit from China. They believe in cash transactions. As at today, whenever you want to do business with them, the Chinese want you to pay a deposit before the product is produced after which they will demand a cash balance. It is a policy that over a period of time, they will mature and change.
Their government can give you some lease with stiff conditions but fellow business partners will not. China’s government may grant you some concession as long as you allow their citizen to come and work on the project. That is not even wrong because they are struggling to provide jobs for more than one billion people and these are things we do not do in Nigeria. We are busy trying to be our neighbours’ big brother.
We are fighting up and down for Rwanda, Botswana and South Africa and we will never ask for anything in return. It is not how to live! Our leaders have not done well in those areas. We should not reach out without having a foothold in those economies because we help to liberate them and we spend our taxpayers’ money and sacrifice our lives for ‘good brother thing’ and come back. This is wrong and the Americans will tell you that there is no free lunch because they have interests to protect.
You just talked about our issue with security; do you think Boko Haram should be granted amnesty?
Their actions are illegal. Why are they asking for amnesty? If they drop their guns and stop killing people, government will stop going after them. Their leaders who are doing these things should leave the country because they have not done well. If you kill people with impunity, you should be brought to justice.
Boko Haram is a man-made problem that is not different from the former militants in the Niger Delta. It is a political tool for some people. It is a problem for politicians and they will solve it because they are destroying the northern economy.
THE hair is the most important part of the body when it comes to fashion. No one can look really fashionable without the trendiest hairdo (hairstyle). However, the rainy months always affect the hair in the most unpleasant way. As we all know, just spending some few minutes in the rain can ruin your stylish hairdo and make nonsense of your appearance. So, smart women know that the best thing to do is to prepare for this season of the year. Keep a travellers’ hairdryer in your office. Knot your long hair when you are on the run, secure your hair with shower cap and avoid gels during this season, as they could become messy.
Ideal hairdos for this rainy season are single braids (one million braids), weave and wig.
Low-cut
Long hair is great to have, but it can be strenuous, hard and tedious to deal with at times. Short hair can be better managed even if they get wet. So it is better to have a haircut, short hair can be dried quickly and combing it is easier than wet long hair.
Single plaits (million braids)
The ideal hairdo for this rainy season is weave and single plait. Single plaits are the million braids, which people generally refer to as braids. It could be twisted hair, or you could have your natural hair woven; if you need to braid, check the texture of your hair. This will determine the kind of braid or hair you are going to do, the weight of the attachment could make the hair fall off if your braids tracking are very tight.
Weave
Weave needs low maintenance and it could actually survive any weather. You can’t predict when rain will fall. Basically, all you need to do is (for this) is to blow dry after you have been soaked. In fact, if it’s not much, it will dry off on its own and you will still have your hairstyle.
Wigs
Wigs are good, but they have to be synthetic wigs. Why synthetic wigs? We have the human hair and the synthetic hair wigs. The synthetic wig is made from mono-fabric fibres (not human hair) and they have low maintenance costs. You don’t have to blow dry a synthetic wig nor thong it. So it is more or less a wake-up-and-go hairdo.
Jerry curls
The cold wave hairdo like jerry curls could be simply washed, conditioned and re-activated after the rain had beaten one.
Kindly tell us more about your background
I was born on Sunday August 25, 1946 in Kaduna. My father was a native of Abeokuta in Ogun State, while my mother was of Sierra Leonean extraction. I had my formative years in Kaduna. I had my primary and secondary school up to high school level in Abeokuta. I attended the University of Ibadan for just one year before I changed my course of study and university to Obafemi Awolowo University then known as University of Ife. There, I obtained a degree in Electronic Engineering in 1971. I immediately went abroad where I had my post- graduate studies, an Msc in Electronic Engineering and specialised in Micro Waves. I worked briefly as a development engineer at in the UK before I went on to do my doctorate degree at the University of Success. I obtained my Ph.D in 1978. Immediately, I returned to Nigeria to continue with my employment at the University of Ife where I served for over 29 years before I went into voluntary retirement in 2002 having commenced full ministerial work at the end of Year 2000.
One may ask how I got into ordained ministry. It happened that my mother died when I was fairly young in 1957. Then my father’s cousin, the late Bishop Jonathan Soremi Adeniyi, in order to help him (my father) adjust to the situation as a widower, requested that some of us should come and stay with him at our native city. He was the principal of Abeokuta Grammar School. After some time, I came under his influence as an Anglican priest who later became a bishop. My being ordained today in the ministry is really an act of grace from God and an instrumentality of Rtd. Rev. Jonathan Soremi Adeniyi. I became a deacon in 1979 and a priest in 1981 and to the glory of God, I have occupied every position in the Anglican ministry. I moved from being a deacon to a full priest, honourary canon, statutory canon to becoming a venerable archdeacon, a provost, a bishop and today by the grace of God an archbishop in the Anglican Communion.
With your educational records, would it be right to say that you were born with a silver spoon?
I don’t know of any silver spoon. I thank God my parents were fairly well to do. My father was a banker and he happened to be among the first set of Nigerians that the British Bank of West Africa tested out as bank managers in the early 50s. He was a banker and rose to be a manager. By the virtue of his career, one could say that he was well above average and that robbed off on us.
What has changed since you became an archbishop?
Nothing has changed about this creature. I remain the same servant of God just that responsibilities have increased. We are trusting God who caused it to happen to grant us the grace of office to meet the challenges and the demands of the office as the Archbishop of the Lagos Province of Anglican Communion.
It would be nice to know how you met your wife.
I was an undergraduate in the University of Ife between 1968 and 1971. She gained admission into the same institution in 1968 and graduated in 1972, she came in as a prelim student while I entered as a first year now a second year student. Both of us have had the grace of being born again and were both members of the Evangelical Christian Union (ECU). I enjoy Church music a great deal. She on her part was a talented and great singer, so we had something in common. While I was in charge of music at a point in time at ECU, she was one of the outstanding singers of the group. Over a period of time, I had a leading, a witness in my mind that it would please God for both of us to go into marriage relationship. After a while, I talked to her. She prayed about it and gave her consent. That was how our relationship blossomed into marriage on September 30, 1972 after she graduated. I had graduated a year ahead of her in 1971 and had actually gone ahead for my Masters degree programme, while she was completing her undergraduate programme. We have every cause to thank God for our marriage which is blessed with three lovely boys. Two of them are married. We are happy to have three grandchildren.
Has your marriage been a bed of roses all along?
Of course not but in totality, God has been very gracious and kind to us. We have had a lot of challenges and a lot of anxious moments. My wife had a road accident in 1989 and it is a miracle that she is alive today. I had to take her to the UK for medical assistance. It was a trying period. Our children have had accidents at various times. One had an accident on motorcycle when he was preparing to go into the university.
It was an anxious moment. Our first son had an accident as an infant and ended up in the hospital. It was an anxious moment. We have various anxious moments in life but we thank God that our trust has always being in Him. He has remained our help because He is always there to help us in our moments of anxiety.
I read that you were in the corporate world as chairman of Chams’ Board of Directors. Is that true?
Well, not in a corporate world as such. I happen to be very active in computer profession in Nigeria. As at the time God gave me the grace to obtain a Ph.D in Computer Engineering, it was a rare feat in the country. I have never been a businessman but have made use of my professional knowledge to benefit the profession in this country. Yes, I have been involved with Chams Plc right from infancy to about 20 years and have had the privilege of serving the company at the highest level as the chairman of the board of directors.
Now that you are an archbishop, would you still be involved in such corporate activities?
I have retired. I have actually retired from the board of Chams. On my election as the Archbishop of Lagos, I have retired from the board of Chams and strictly concerned with church matters. My position at Chams never competed with my church activities even as a bishop. I sat and directed four board meetings in a year and directed one annual general meeting once in a year. I quit because with God’s grace bringing us to this position of archbishop, it was desirable that I should completely leave such position in order not to mislead anyone.
Your position would demand you have tight schedule. Do you have social life at all?
Social life in terms of attending parties and visiting, I can say is almost zero. There’s so much to do. The diocese of Lagos Mainland Anglican Communion is a relatively young diocese. We are just getting to be seven years old so there is so much work to do in terms of provision of infrastructure and meeting several other needs. There are other demands coming from other dioceses to me now as an archbishop. My position doesn’t carry any metro political power over other dioceses but it has coordinating and administrative roles to play and it is a bit substantial. The position really leaves me with very little time to socialise and to visit. By the time you go through your normal day schedule there’s nothing you will seek for beside your bed, just to have some rest.
Lecturers are often faced with the twin-temptation of money and women. You were in the university system for almost 29 years, how did you cope with these?
I don’t know how you came about that opinion . I was in the university system for almost 29 years and didn’t have problem with money though the pay in the university is not the best. A university don knows that he’s not a business man, he knows that he is not a star. Univeristy work confers on you simplicity of lifestyle and you don’t really need too much to go through those things. It is an anomaly for anyone to view university work as a means of becoming rich. If you want to be rich, you go into business or the corporate world and not the university. You are meant to engage yourself in discovery, in knowledge creation, in building up skilled manpower for the world. Our major work deals with the intellectual component of developing our students. We are also saddled with the task of setting good examples for them. You don’t set good examples by flaunting money before your students. I didn’t have that temptation.
I also never had any problem with women. I had female students many of whom were my daughters. My wife and I adopted quite a number of them. They visited us and spent time with us. There are still a good number of them that remain as our daughters today. They are wives and mothers in their own right today but still relate to us as our daughters. Yes, we have very few university dons who want to take undue advantage of female students through sexual harassment but I dare say, and I am saying it with every sense of responsibility, that the problem has been extremely exaggerated by the Nigerian press. Worse things happen in ministries, the civil service and the private sector. Sexual harassment is worse in the society than in university system.
When I talked about money, I meant lecturers taking bribe or asking for bribe from students to pass them.
I am being very honest. I never heard of it in all my close to 29 years in the university system. It is an anatema for a university don to do so. When a lecturer awards marks to students, it is his own integrity that he is putting on the line. You are saying to the whole world that this person is competent in your subject. Why would you give mark not deserved for whatever reason to a student or demand bribe from students in order to give them marks? I can’t believe it that a lecturer would ask for bribes to pass students. I can’t believe it and it can’t be true. It never happened all my whole 29 years in the system. Any don that is caught doing that should be given a universal disgrace.
The Anglican Communion has spoken very well against homosexualism but I read that it has been very weak in condemning the practice of polygamy among the clergy and top lay faithful. Why is it so?
Facts are sacred and views are free. I do not know of any clergy man that is polygamous. Yes, I know there has been one or two cases of church people wanting to allege polygamy in the life of one or two clergy men but I have not come across one. As far as polygamy is concerned, I don’t know of any Anglican clergy man that is polygamous. On homosexuality, it is an abomination unto God the Lord. Bestiality, human beings having sexual relationship with animals is also a punishment from God. The same thing goes for sodomy. The ideal Christian marriage involves one man and one woman, nothing more than that.
If you find that any of your priests is a gay, what will you do?
Our church is one that operates on the constitution. For us in the Church of Nigeria, homosexuality is a statutory offence. I will apply the full weight of the provisions of the constitution against such a priest. There can be no room for homosexuals in our church.
Part of what I also read was that cult members have continued to take over burial activities of some members after church services. Could this be true bearing in mind the church’s war against cultism?
The Anglican Church that I know as of today has no room for cult members. At every ordination, the candidates are publicly made to pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ. They must publicly declare that they are not members of any secret society or cult and that they do not intend to join. Should they ever go back on that, they would pronounce God’s judgement on themselves. We have no place for cultism. Members of parish council must also come out publicly to swear before the church that they are not members of any secret society or that they have rescinded their membership. Cultism or secret society do not constitute any problem in the church today. We have clear views and our members know what the stand of the church is on this. You can’t serve God and mammon.
You were born in the North. How do you feel about the violence in the area?
I am very sad about it. God has blessed this country a great deal. Nigeria has known so much development in the past 60 years that I can recall but it is very sad that we have not outgrown parochialism, ethnicity and triabalism. As a little boy growing up in Kaduna, you have Yoruba to your left, Igbo in the middle and Hausa to your right. There were no fences. We ate tuwo with our Hausa neighbours. I can’t recollect how much my parents spent in buying rice. They came as gift from his Hausa friends. As a young man growing up in the North, you will speak three languages. I still understand Igbo and speak Hausa till today. My wife is from the South South while I am from the South West.
I grew up in a Nigeria where nobody knew whether you are Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo. I was puzzled when my mum told me that I am a Yoruba. I was like what does that mean? Am I not a Nigerian? Who is Yoruba again? I could not understand it. I should have a sense of Kaduna being a home to me even today but it is painful to know that we do not have a home in Kaduna again. Up till the time I was a university don, I looked up to Kaduna as my family home. It wasn’t until 2003 that I went to dispose of my father’s second house in the state. It was a dark day for me when I went to sell it.
My father died in 1967. All the while I was abroad, we had two houses there but when I saw the way things were going, it became clear to me that it was not wise to leave the house there and I went to sell it. My father was an Egba man and I claim my native city of Abeokuta but I thought Kaduna was my home. I still hold found memories of my childhood days in Kaduna. My prayer for Nigeria is that God will teach us to know the true meaning of brotherhood in the spirit of love, justice and equity. May God bless Nigeria.
A suspected member of a three-man robbery gang arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command has said that he preferred operating as a fraudster to engaging in armed robbery. Thirty-five-year-old Abiodun Akinniyi said he preferred to function as a fraudster because it is an activity that requires more of brain than weapons.
Akinniyi is cooling his heels in SARS’ cell alongside two other suspected members of the gang, Akinsiku Olaseinde (40) and Tajudeen Lasisi (40). Narrating his experience in the underworld, he said: “I am from Awe town in Oyo State. I am a carpenter by profession. There was no type of carpentry work I did not do to get money. I did not want to be too rich. I needed just enough money to keep me going, but many of my customers intentionally refused to pay me or disappeared whenever the money involved was much.
“At times, they would ask me to exercise patience as they would soon get the money to pay me. At other times, I would continue to wait till the money became bad debt and irretrievable. Any attempt to take them to court would work in their favour as the courts would grant them bail since their offences were bailable. I became frustrated by the insincerity of customers, and that made me to think of changing to another kind of job.
“It was during these trying moments that I met a friend named Ajimosun and he turned me into a fraudster. That is why I call him my mentor. He tutored me well on how to obtain by false pretence. He said that fraudsters were only exploiting the greed of victims who wanted to reap where they did not sow. He said every lawyer begs the police to charge his client to court to enable him to secure the bail of his client and frustrate the victim with long adjournments or getting the case struck out.
“Ajimosun also said that armed robbery is a more serious crime and the accused cannot dream of securing a bail. He would be kept in the prison yard to wait for the recommendations of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP). He said fraudsters are respected, while robbers are treated like lepers. He taught me a lot of things, but the one that I practised, which caused my arrest, was that I should first look for the mobile phone number of the victim through his complimentary card and start a conversation with him or her.
“The GSM number can also be got from someone the victim had been calling or from a special business centre. I call it special because such centres are solely established to monitor people’s GSM numbers in order to defraud them. Even some GSM centres that are not controlled by fraudsters are also useful. If we want the GSM number of a particular person, we would just go for phone call the moment he drops the phone and look for called numbers.
“Other victims are those who are desperate to get accommodation, buy land, obtain international passport and visa, secure admission into higher institutions and others who want to hit the jackpot.”
Asked why he was arrested, he said: “I met the victim in October last year opposite the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). I told him that I was a supervisor in the CBN and that the money I wanted to shift to him must be properly guarded to avoid leakage. I told him that we would divide the dollars on equal basis and he agreed. That was how the general fell victim. I even showed him my identity card and he was very happy.
“He even gave me the sum of N6,000 for transport after the discussion I had with him for over two hours. I told him, among other things, that I would bring a consignment of dollars and I asked him for money to hire a bullion van to bring the money.
“He gave me N47,000 in October last year. I later invited him to Lagos in January. He came and gave me N37,000 to facilitate the delivery of the consignment. He also gave me another N10,000 the same month, bringing the total cash he gave me to N141,000.
“The victim is a retired army general. I thanked him very much and asked God to continue to bless him.”
Dear Sister Deola, good evening ma. You don’t know me but I have been a regular reader of your column for long. Please advise. I have a boyfriend that looks after me. I just found out he’s married and I wanted to leave him but he told me that he can’t leave me for any other man; that he’s going to marry me dandan (by force). I love him and he loves me but can I marry a married man?
The fear of all women is the other woman and in this case, you’re the other woman. I have attended many ‘second-wife’ marriages and so, I cannot say if or not your man is lying that he wants to marry you. I know for sure that girlfriends eventually become second wives in some cases. Time will tell in your own case.
I cannot stay here and say do not do it. You obviously are settled in this relationship and it is certain the man is carrying out duties towards you, which I cannot do for you if I ask you to leave him.
If your religion is in life with polygamy, then, go for it if he is truthful about his intentions. If your parents are in support, then I have no say. But before I sign off your case, below are some articles I came across which you may learn one or two things from:
Perhaps the best advice you can give someone about having a relationship with a married man is telling her not to even start. However, that may not be practical for all women. As my friend Jenna* told me, “You can’t help who you fall in love with. The love of your life just might be a married man.”
Being part of any couple can be challenging and unpredictable, as we all know. But when the man with whom you’re involved is part of another couple, someone else’s husband, then the challenge and unpredictability can make your life a messy, unhappy waiting game that you will rarely win.
The woman who is in love with a married man lives a life that, for the most part, is shrouded in secrecy. Her close circle of friends might know about her affair, but she really cannot let anyone else, such as colleagues or her family, know. She is alone most of the time and spends it waiting: waiting for her married lover to call, to come meet her, to share some precious time together. She is not his wife, she is not mother to his children, she is not his parents’ daughter-in-law. Her chance for happiness hinges on a future that is highly uncertain, to say the least.
Your own survival is crucial, and if you do happen to fall in love with a married man, there are several hard truths you need to know.
1. The needs of the many (namely, his family) will always outweigh your needs.
His family will always come first, and that includes his wife. Simply because he talks in a negative way about his marriage doesn’t mean that his obligations to his wife are any less important to him. Whether or not they have children is a moot point; he will always feel as if he has to be a husband to her and take care of the marriage, whether he truly loves her or not. Their life together includes friendships and a social network that is shared and comfortable for him. He won’t risk losing that.
2. His life with you is secret and always will be.
No matter how much you may want to walk in the sunshine with him and have him openly acknowledge his love for you, it won’t happen. While he is more than willing to be your lover and to bring you gifts, he is not about to have you meet his friends and risk having his family find out about you.
3. No matter how nice a guy he is, you are a temporary diversion for him.
This is not an easy statement to comprehend. It’s emotionally painful. Unfortunately it is true. The beginning of an affair is romantic and naughty at the same time. Planning to be together becomes a fascinating game and is thrilling to say the least. Stealing hours from work or home to have sex is exciting, and you may mistake his libido-driven passion for undying love. Don’t. The game soon becomes a chore for him, and romantic interludes are just one more thing he “has to do.”
4. He will not leave his wife.
Less than 5 percent of men leave their wives for the woman with whom they are having an affair. Whether it is because of all the legal and financial problems attached to divorce, religious beliefs or the fact that they have become comfortable with their marriage the way it is — or even because they still have a certain affection for their wives, men rarely end up with the other woman. Even Katharine Hepburn knew, and accepted, this fact during her long affair with Spencer Tracy. And don’t ever kid yourself on this important point: He is still having sex with his wife, no matter what you may want to believe.
5. Legally, financially and emotionally, you have no claim.
You may realize that you have no claim legally or financially, but you would think there’d be an emotional attachment or bond between you and your lover. In fact there usually isn’t after the affair is over. Here’s why. Even though he has a deep feeling of love for you, he is able to process it in an unemotional way. He’s not a bad guy, he may be a wonderfully kind person, but he is also a practical one. He knows that holding on to emotions that can only cause problems for his family is something he cannot and will not do. When it’s over, he will move on.
To safeguard yourself from too much emotional pain, you need to understand that he can only be a small part of your life and will never be more than that no matter how many promises are made. You need to have a life that works and that is full enough to withstand the pain of the eventual breakup. He has one and you need one, too.
A solid circle of friends and a social life separate from your hidden life with him is a necessity. Let your friends know that you still want to go out with them regularly. Don’t always be so ready to cancel plans you have made with others to accommodate him. Casual dating with male friends helps, too. It allows you to see yourself through the eyes of another man who finds you interesting and attractive. It is up to you where it might lead. It helps to remember that the man with whom you are intimately involved in “your other life” is not living as a monk with his wife.
Being involved in an affair with someone else’s husband is an almost surefire trip from ecstatic highs at the beginning to a depressing abyss at the end. Understand the basics of exactly what you are getting into, and what your status is.
You need to step back and identify the priorities — your priorities — in a relationship with a married man. Think with your head and not with your heart. Ensuring you have a life distinct from his that is your safe haven can make being the other woman, if not a secure, permanent position, at least one that is a bit more tolerable.
Kristen Houghton is the author of the hilarious new book, No Woman Diets Alone – There’s Always a Man Behind Her Eating a Doughnut
The Chairman of the Fedration of Tourism Associations of Nigeria, Manpower Development and Standards Committee, Mr. Abiodun Odusanwo, has called on stakeholders to rally round to develop the human capital in the Nigerian tourism industry.
He said this in a commendation letter he wrote to the Assocciation Nigerian Journalists and Writers of Tourism (ANJET), an affiliate of the world body, FIJET.
He said: “ Nigeria is a wonderful country in all ramifications. This is especially so when you look at the aggregation of its people, the landscapes, culture, character, history and traditions. Our culture of hospitality is remarkable, while our festivals are embedded in deep-rooted cultural legacies, impacting, therefore, a sense of socio-cultural successes that are not only long-standing, but are also one of the pointers to our future in terms of the visions and potential to develop. These are the indicators of our uniqueness as a nation which we hold as a matter of proud inheritance. They are also potential factors to galvanise people from around the world to want to see our vast array of cultures and to know and understand Nigeria.
Odunsanwo said tourism is central to how people from across the country and from abroad can begin to do that and continue to do that and “It is incumbent on the ANJET to disseminate cohesive and abundantly rich information that reflects good appreciation of the tourism industry in its entirety to everyone, whether they’re from different parts of Nigeria or from different countries around the world, to be able to enjoy the rich diversity of what Nigeria has to offer’.
Pensioners are supposed to be enjoying their lives after years of toiling for their country. But, in Nigeria, the reverse is the case, as the monthly dues of many of them are delayed for months and at times years, writes LEKE SALAUDEEN
HE knew he did not have the strength. So, he sent his son to the Pension Office in Abuja from his base in Benin, Edo State. But despite the fact that his son was armed with a letter of authority to receive the money on his behalf, he was ignored by the officials in charge. He had to return to Benin to fetch his aged and sick father, a decision which proved fatal.
Elder Michael Igiebor Okhokpa had worked with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). He died on his way to Abuja to receive his pension. He died inside the vehicle conveying him to Abuja. In frustration, the son took his father’s body to the pension officers. There was pandemonium when they arrived, as angry onlookers, including other pensioners, nearly caused a riot. The hitherto recalcitrant officials promptly paid the dead man’s pension.
Certainly, this is not how to treat a senior citizen who had served his country meritoriously. It shows how callous and insensitive the Nigerian system can often times be.
Getting gratuity and pensions in Nigeria has become a nightmare for senior citizens. Often, these men and women who spent their youth serving the country are compelled to make long journeys to Lagos or Abuja or state headquarters for some officials to ascertain their continued existence. In some cases, the pensioners, where they enjoy good health, do not even have enough funds to make the trip.
Retirement is a period workers should look forward to with hope and pleasure. After many years of hard labour, a worker is entitled to some peace and security in his old age. It is for this reason that many people once considered a career in civil service safe and secure. But that is no more. The life of an average pensioner is now insecure and generally, senior citizens are treated shabbily. Help does not come from the state either, and the future is uncertain.
Last Wednesday, the National Union of Pensioners (NUP) was to hold a peace protest. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had directed all members of the congress, who work in Abuja and Lagos, to stay off work on that day in solidarity with the pensioners. But the protest has been suspended till April 30 to allow government to address the issues at stake.
The Ag. President of the congress, Comrade Promise Adewusi, had, before the suspension, said that NLC would not rescind the decision unless the Federal Government “considers the inequities in the pension fund administration in the country, particularly as they affect our members.”
He had said: “The issues in a nutshell are non-payment of outstanding arrears to scores of pensioners, non-enrolment of thousands of pensioners on the Federal Pension Payroll , non-payment of death benefits to deserving next of kin.”
He added that other issues at stake are the non-implementation of payments to pensioners to reflect the 53.4 per cent salary review and payment of pension in line with relevant increases in the Minimum Wage to N18,000, withholding of the NUP statutory check-off dues for over a year, and the slow pace at which pension payment is being processed by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation.
The NLC recalled that the administration of pension funds has been enmeshed in unprecedented corruption with some public officers, institutions of government and banks generously helping themselves to the said fund, and in the process, deny pensioners their pension.
This, situation, said Adewusi, has thrown majority of whom are members of NLC into penury, with some dying in queues of protracted and unending verification exercises that yield little or no result.
The congress noted that government’s undignified silence on the matter in spite of the shrill cries and agony of the victims and the criticism of concerned citizens has been shocking.
According to the Ag. President, the congress had tried to intervene or mediate by writing several letters to the presidency and reaching out to the government through other channels.
He said the NLC also made public pronouncements on the pension saga in the hope of getting the government to do something to ameliorate the trauma and sufferings of pensioners, all to no avail.
The congress submitted that “the government did not as much as acknowledge any letters, let alone respond to the issues Congress had publicly raised, lending credence to its indifference and complicity.”
To avert the impending peace protest, NLC therefore called for immediate restoration of the withheld check-off dues to NUP, accelerated payment of all arrears of pensions to the deserving pensioners.
The NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar, and the Acting General Secretary, Chris Uyot, announced in a communique signed by them on Tuesday, that Federal Government, at a joint meeting held with the NLC and TUC, had accepted to restore the check-off dues of the NUP which had been withheld for a year.
The case of NITEL staff
Three years after disengagement, hundreds of ex-workers of the Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and its mobile arm, M-tel, are left in the lurch over non- payment of their pension entitlements. Life has not been the same for the retirees.
Mr. Oghevbode Otaghogho cannot understand why he was being denied his entitlements after serving the country for 28 years. “The psychological trauma I’m going through is beyond imagination. Before I left Bauchi where I served, I was engaged in petty trading that was fetching me money to feed my family. But insecurity has forced me to relocate to Abuja. I have exhausted the little capital for petty trading on feeding due to high cost of living in Abuja. In fact, I’m contemplating returning to my village in Delta State. For how long will I continue to depend on people to survive?”
Mr. Amos Alagbe retired in 2005. His plan was to use his pension entitlement to complete a house he was building in his home-town Ogbomoso, Oyo State. He’s living in a two-room apartment in Bauchi with his family.”Even if I decide to go home now, where will I stay? The joy of a retired worker is to have a roof over his head. It has been hectic for me and my wife to survive in the last eight years. The treatment being meted on us by government is unjust.”
Mr. Enong Okey relived his experience: “It has been very tough living without pension. I thought they would pay immediately going by the content of the letter stating our pension entitlement. Since 2010, it has been promises upon promises. At a time, we were told that the money had been paid to the bank. We went to the bank for confirmation. To our surprise, the bank said there was nothing like that. The bank officials said we should demand a copy of pay mandate from the Accountant General of the Federation’s office if it is true they have paid. But the officials in AGF’S office said they can’t release it because it is an official document. When I was evicted by my landlord, I have to squat with my relations together with my wife and children. It was a clergy man in my church that gave me N100,000 to secure accommodation out of sheer sympathy.
‘The money could pay for six months. The rent will expire next month. I don’t know what to do. I hope those who are making life difficult for retirees realise that one day they will retire from the civil service and they would not pray to undergo this kind of experience.’
Mr. Igili Gregory Edekin served in Jalingo, Taraba State, before his retirement. He lost his wife recently because of lack of medical care as he could not afford to pay hospital bills. Even after her death, Edekin could not foot the burial bills of his beloved wife. Now, he has been evicted from his residence owing to accumulated rents. He was forced to relocate to his village in Edo State.
Similarly, Mr. Ahuka Lawrence Iheanyi may be ejected by his landlord who is tired of stories that he is awaiting his pension to be paid. His children have stopped schooling because of unsettled fees. His concern is how to raise money to send his children back to school.
For Mr. Umana Umana, the only regret he has serving NITEL is the failure of the management to pay him his entitlements after serving the country for many years. The non-payment of his pension is affecting his family. He finds it difficult to feed his wards let alone paying his children’s school fees. This is not how to reward people that have used their productive years in serving their fatherland, he said.
Investigations by The Nation revealed that the 7.5% were deducted from the staff salaries as pension contribution between 2007 and 2010. Both the employees’ contribution and the other 7.5% to be contributed by the management as required by the new pension scheme were not remitted to the Pension Fund Administrators. Hence, the accounts of some retirees at their respective PFAs show they have not contributed anything.
Whereas, when the workers were laid off in 2010, they were issued letters indicating how much each of them is entitled to as pension. The packages, according to our findings, were worked out by the NITEL management, the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF).
One of the affected retirees said: “NITEL retired about 90% of its workforce in 2010. We started contributing to pension scheme in 2007. Deduction for pension contribution is reflected in our pay slips. The management through a letter informed us that our pension benefits were to be drawn from our PFAs.
“On the strength of the letter, I went to my PFA- IBTC with the hope of getting paid. To my surprise, my account and that of other colleagues show that we have not contributed anything. That is to say that our accounts were not funded by NITEL. In IBTC alone, 1,031 retirees are affected; IBTC is just one of the PFAs that manage the pension fund of NITEL workers.
“We learnt that IBTC had written NITEL that some of the accounts were not funded by it. Since 2010, we have been struggling to get our entitlements. The questions we keep asking are: What happened to our pension contributions? Where are the government’s contributions?”
Expressing displeasure over the development, the National leader of the Association of former Telecom Employees of Nigeria (ATEN), Mr. Godwin Alajemba, told our correspondent in an interview that “there is record that all staff of NITEL between 2007 and 2010 paid their own quota of the 15% contribution (being 7.5% as specified by the PFA requirement). This is so because these monies were deducted from source before the salaries were paid or collected by the staff. But one is sad to note that although that of the staff were deducted and some paid to their respective PFAs, the other 7.5% that is to be contributed by NITEL was not inclusive in the monies so far remitted to the PFAs, that is in the case of those who have been paid, let alone those yet to be paid.
“On several occasions, the Association of Former Telecoms Employees has taken up the matter with NITEL and the AGF’s office with the occasional results of the AGF paying a few numbers of persons and once again putting on hold the payments. With this action, it is clear that the AGF’s office is responsible for the delay in payments”.
On whether there was fraud in the management of the pension funds, the ATEN leader said: “I would want to be careful asserting fraud here on the reasons that from my findings, the AGF directed that monies (released in October 2012 to banks who were in turn to credit the account of the respective PFAs) be returned to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in November 2012; their reason being that some banks were under merger process.
“Our concern now is that the merging process has long been completed and so the monies should have been released to the banks for onward transmission to the PFAs. Largely affected was Access Bank and unfortunately, they are the bank paying or remitting to IBTC. We are getting information that the banks have been contacted to produce proof of their remittance to CBN so that they can be repositioned to receive the money back for the PFAs within the next few weeks. We understand IBTC has written NITEL on the delayed payment.”
Alajemba, however, attributed non-payment of retirement benefits to various factors such as submitting wrong account number, error in computation of peoples data at the Accountant General’s office, omission of names both at NITEL and AGF ends and wilful withholding of money transfer as directed by the AGF.
Frowning at the bureaucratic procedure, Alajemba said: “it is quite a pity that a lot of people placed in government offices are there not really putting their best even when they know that the life of others is largely affected by their unserious attitude to work. Most of the pensioners in question served NITEL for 35 years, thus giving out the most useful part of their lives for the service of their fatherland. If the economy is in good shape, we would not rely on pension money. By the circumstances of their age, most of them are no longer relevant in the labour market. Government should expedite action on this matter.”
Enquiries at the AGF’s office, however, confirm that the pension deductions of NITEL workers were paid to their respective PFAs in August 2011, two years after the disengagement of the workers. An official, Mr. Sunday Adamu, explained that those who have not received their pension are those who have problems with their accounting details.
He said the pensioners are not helping matters by storming AGF’s office in pursuit of their pension. “It is a breach of protocol because the AGF’s office does not recognise individuals but the PFAs. It is the responsibility of PFAs to come and find out the cases of their clients not individuals.”
Adamu said NITEL and BPE are responsible for computing their pension details not AGF. They are still compiling names. As soon as they are through with the compilation and forwarded to the AGF’s office, they will be paid, he said.
A spokesman of IBTC, Mr. Magnus Ekwueme, told The Nation: “We pay former staff once NITEL sends their names along with Retirement Savings Account (RSA) and Pencom Pin Number as well as the amount due to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation. They have been doing this in batches.”
Asked how many have been paid, Ekwueme said quite a number have been paid, emphasising that as long as the ex-staff provide the statutory documentations Pen Coms approval would be sort and the client will receive their pay.
What Pension Commission Act says?
The National Pension Commission Act stipulates that all pension funds and assets shall be transferred to licensed operators.
Section 39(1) of Pension Reform Act 2004 which deals with penalties for non-compliance with funding of existing Pension Scheme states that the pension scheme has to be fully funded by the employer at all times and any shortfall to be made up within 90 days.
After the expiration of 90 days and there is no compliance, the commission will write a letter of advice to the defaulting employer. One month after, the recalcitrant employer gets letter of caution. Thereafter, a fine not more than N250,000 and N500,000 is imposed every month, Section 44-46 0f the Act provides that all pension funds and assets shall be transferred to licensed operators.
The revised regime of sanctions and penalties for non-compliance states that: “Upon discovery of non-transfer by the commission letter of caution will be issued. Two months after, letter of advice will be written. One month after, letter of warning. A month after, letter to pay fine of N250,000 for every month of default will be issued.
Pension system encourages corruption
An expert in pension administration has described the pension system in the country as lacking care and respect for the senior citizens. Mr. Kunle Ajibade told our correspondent in an interview that except pensioners receive fair and prompt treatment, the country is unwittingly strengthening the temptation of civil servants to be corrupt.
According to him, any society that cannot treat its elderly citizens with care and respect advertises its disregard for values. Stressing that retirees should be paid their entitlements without any stress, he said the present practice where civil servants at both federal and state levels have to wait for four to five years before they get their gratuity is not ideal.
He noted that some ministries are notorious; they seem to derive pleasure from the hopelessness of retirees. Proper records are not kept. Unscrupulous officials demand different documents from bewildered retirees.
On the new pension scheme, he said: “The expectation was that the private sector-driven national pension scheme introduced by the Obasanjo administration would fast-track payment of pensions to retired civil servants and that the emergence of Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) will eliminate inefficiency and corruption in the system; this has been counter- productive in some cases.
It’s not because the new scheme is not good but the Nigerian factor is at play. Many employers have circumvented the Pension Act by deducting pension contributions from the salaries of employees without remitting them and the employers’ mandatory contribution to the pension administrators. It is when the employees disengage and approach their PFAs for their pension entitlements that they realise that there is nothing in their accounts.
“The employers particularly in the private sector breach the rule with impunity. Despite the prescribed sanctions in the Act, how many employers have been brought to book? It is because we don’t value the contributions of retirees in this country. In other climes, the welfare of senior citizens is accorded high priority.
“The pension payment system, with regard to retired civil servants who are not covered by the new system introduced by the Obasanjo administration, must be reviewed. Humiliating and maltreating persons who had spent a better part of their lives serving the country is unacceptable. It is curious that the usually discourteous pension payment officers, who derive joy in humiliating pensioners, hardly realise that they would also end up as pensioners some day.”