Retirees’ health

Our Reporter

THE evidence of neglect of Nigerian retirees is mostly visible in the rapid degeneration of their health. In a country where access to healthcare is generally poor, the retirees constitute a sector most vulnerable and crying for attention and support.

With retirement age pegged at 60 for civil servants, and some even retiring earlier on account of health status or having served for 35 years, it is a crime to have neglected the senior citizens who have served with their sweat and blood.

The criminal neglect received the attention of the Pension Funds Operators of Nigeria who told members of the National Assembly to come up with legislation that would fund geriatric health better.

They said a component of the Contributory Pension Fund should be set aside to take care of the aged and ageing. As operators of the pension fund, they have observed many retirees being forced to draw a lump sum from the pension fund, therefore being left at the mercy of penury in later years.

After the lump sum, those granted the grace to live longer then begin to come down with natural ailments associated with old age, but with no support from anywhere. Poor nutrition and squalor then combine to bring up consequential diseases that knock them down too early.

The government has failed the people in so many ways that it is not only criminal to look away as those who have served the state selflessly for decades are subjected to the vagaries of avoidable or treatable diseases.

Truth be told, pension for the retirees is usually neglected. It is a common sight that they are paraded on queues around the pension offices for days with no assurance they would ever be paid.

When challenged, government authorities are quick to explain it away as those who retired over the “old scheme”. Then, the healthcare system is so unfavourable that those who retired home to villages where there are no health care facilities are willfully surrendered to death.

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It is unpardonable that, in a country where many top public servants have been caught helping themselves to public fund, with few ever being convicted, the honest ones and their families bear the brunt at a time they can do very little to help themselves.

We join the operators of the pension fund to canvass special attention to the plight of the senior citizens. A good starting point is to ensure that the pension scheme works, with most Nigerians in the public and private sectors subscribing.

It is a shame that at this age more than 90 per cent of the populace have to pay for medical care from their pockets.

The few that have subscribed so far have a litany of complaints on the inefficiency thereof. The authorities should look into it. The guiding framework that allowed the level of graft recently exposed in the management of the fund and the exploitation of subscribers by the operators and hospitals have to be checked forthwith, if more Nigerians are to be brought in.

In sub-Sahara Africa, Nigeria is one of those countries without an effective health insurance policy. Countries like Senegal, South Africa and Ghana that have equally subscribed to the United Nations Madrid International Action on Ageing and the African Union Policy Framework on Ageing have long left Nigeria behind because they care for their citizens.

If the lawmakers truly accept their responsibility of representing their constituents, they should swing into action immediately, summoning all stakeholders in the executive arm of government and the private sector with a view to saving the ageing population buffeted with too many man-made problems.

The time to act is now as many more civil servants are being converted to the side of looters seeing the bleak future that awaits them at retirement.