I am a retiree of the Federal Civil Service. I retired six years ago. Early this week, we retirees of the federal service received text messages in our phones notifying us that our Retirement Salary Account has been credited with varying sums of money ‘’representing the consequential adjustment payment released by PenCom’’.
We were, therefore, requested to visit our various Pension Funds Administrators (PFA) for ‘’data recapture’’ between Monday November 24 and Wednesday November 26.
We were also requested to come along with what former USA President Richard Nixon would call a ‘’laundry list’’ which included a retirement letter, payslips of the last three months of your service, BVN, NIN, bank details, passport, and proof of address.
My wife and I and some members of my family were out of town in Abuja for over a week for some important family function in our village so it was my wife who drew my attention to the text messages and encouraged me to pursue the matter as directed by my PFA. We returned to Abuja on Tuesday November 25, eve of the last day of the exercise. Wednesday November 26, my wife still reminded me to go to my PFA and see what the matter would be. In spite of the exhaustion from the long and tiresome journey to and fro I prepared and went to my PFA.
As I approached the cavernous premises of the insurance firm, I beheld a multitude that frightened me. I nearly turned back, resolved to forgo whatever it is that the Tinubu government has mercifully thought fit to do for retirees but the Holy Spirit ministered to me not to turn back but to go right ahead and join the crowd and that he had earlier told me he was going to see me through as I had begged him to do ever before I left my house for the venue.
I was discouraged and frightened from going ahead to join the crowd because its sheer size reminded me of the Old Testament Wilderness Church of John the Baptist when a congregation of 5,000 to 10,000 men and women will gather to hear John rebuking them of their sins and appealing to them to repent and turn a new leaf. For along with the huge Crowds, there were some men and women in tents which seemed like the offices reserved for the priests and Levites to minister to the congregation.
I have known from my long years of experience with Nigerian officialdom that they enjoy such scenes which could at any moment turn chaotic because of poor arrangement and management. The often young men and women who are usually deployed to attend to the invitees would relish the reality of the more eminent men and women surrendered into their hands becoming beggarly and bribing and beseeching them in tearful mournful voices to give them attention so they can leave in time to attend to other matters important to them. Do any of you remember such scenes in a typical Nigerian commercial bank hall? It is about 1pm to 2 pm on a hot, humid day. The hall is full of so many not-so rich customers who do not have the financial muscles to order the manager to send their millions to their palatial homes so they have all come to withdraw the little they need so the hall is full to capacity. Durin such times the customer service staff will become lords to the men and women they are supposed to serv
e. Some of the men and women will begin to answer the young staff who are barely old enough to be their grandchildren ‘’sir’’ or ‘’ma’’ and this young people will begin to carry their shoulders sky high because circumstances have played things into their hands! They have got to enjoy their moment.
It is with this knowledge in my heart that I was compelled to approach the multitude with some unsteady steps. Well, I remembered that the Holy Spirit had assured me of his readiness to help me through. So I advanced unsteadily towards the gathering. God was at his work. One middle age man in one of the tents motioned to me to approach a man there who was issuing out numbers to the invitees. When he issued out to me my own number (312) to me, he now told me it is with this numbers people will now enter a big hall in front of where he sat and wait patiently to be attended to one after another. With this explanation, I now proceeded with some confidence to enter the hall. I entered that hall and found a seat for myself in no particular order.
I stayed in that hall for over an hour and nobody came forth to tell me or the group I found there what to do. This is very typical of us. But as God would have it a young girl who works with my PFA came forth to assist one woman who sat near me and I ‘kidnapped’ her and told her that with my luck, I will not release her until she was able to tell me all I needed to do . The good -natured lady obliged me. But some others who did not have my kind of luck left earlier in frustration and vowed that they will forgo the benefit offered them by PENCOM.
Why on earth will a group of retirees feel reluctant or frustrated to go with a set of documents to be able to claim some sums of money due them by a benevolent government? Well, the whole exercise reminds us of what has become a symbol of the brokenness of our country that needs urgent fixing.
What is the essence of president Olusegun Obasanjo digitalization or internet of things in Nigeria that people who retired from service several years ago are still required to go for pension matters with retirement letter and other documents? Do people who run things in this severely broken country that direly needs fixing know what is meant by retirement according to age? Retirees include men and women who can hardly see well, speak well, reason well and function well. We sat through this exercise from 9 am until the pension funds managers themselves closed office and told those who were unable to complete the protocols elected to leave and come back the following day. Some were3there from Monday the 24th when the exercise began and still came back on Tuesday and Wednesday.
This exercise was not just one involving one pensions funds administrator in Abuja. It is a nationwide thing which means an African wide thing. We were whispered to by some officials that by the time IBTC Pensions starts its own on Monday 1st December, Abuja would be in crisis because of the sheer number of retirees it manages.
From the experience I had, my mind just wandered to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Professor Wole Soyinka, great Nigerians who speak in symbols. When Obasanjo felt sufficiently frustrated by the PDP and could stand the frustration no more, he publicly tore his party’s membership card. Soyinka, a possessor of the much valued American Green Card tore it because he could not stand the presidency of Donald Trump. Although I lack the stature of these eminent Abeokuta Nigerians, I just taught to myself whenever again I am required to claim any benefit by going through ‘screening’ again because our national identity management system is non functional, I will renounce my nationality. What is it with us that a man who served the FG for a minimum of 35 years is still required to be screened again before his identity can be authenticated?
