Nigeria lacks retirement palliatives – Retirees
Retirees enjoy some retirement palliatives in addition to their retirement benefits in some countries in order to ensure their happiness, good health and longevity.
In Nigeria, such retirement palliatives do not exist and retirees are left to struggle and survive on their own.
Daily Trust analysis has shown that Nigeria is one of the worst countries in the world to retire based on the 2017 NATIXIS Global Retirement Index.
Daily Trust spoke to some retirees on some retirement palliative that can better their lives and ease their problems.
A civil service retiree, who is also a member of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Mr Charles Okika, told the Daily Trust that apart from gratuity or lump sum payment and monthly pension, Nigeria has no social security for retirees and other elder citizens.
Okika said to compound the problem, retirement benefits are delayed for months and sometimes for years as governments at various levels are reluctant in prioritising the funding of pension liabilities in the face of dwindling revenues.
“The result is that pensioners are left to depend on the active population for survival in a country with high rate of poverty and unemployment,” he said.
He said Nigeria needs to emulate other countries like Canada and the United States where retirees have some palliatives to enjoy in addition to their immediate retirement benefits. He said palliatives like building retirement care homes and recreational centres for retirees have the potential of increasing retiree’s happiness and longevity.
The retirement care homes would serve as a home for sick and weak retirees with no family or relatives to take care of them while the recreational centre will serve as a meeting point for retirees to make new friends, play, network and ward boredom off.
“Boredom kills in retirement than diseases. When you retire to an empty home with no one to play and talk to, you have retired to your grave,” Okika said.
He advised that governments at all levels should build such care homes and recreational centres in every local government in the country for easy accessibility to retirees.
A retiree, Mr. Joshua Ndakiya, advocated for free healthcare services and free transportation as additional palliatives for retirees.
Ndakiya, who retired from Plateau State civil service, said healthcare consumed most of the resources of retirees and left them impoverished.
“Aging comes with the burden of more health challenges. You fall sick easily,” he said.
He said free transportation will enable retirees to go on vacation to different parts of the country instead of staying at home and doing nothing.
Another retiree who spoke to Daily Trust, Umar Muhammed, said post-retirement investment support and volunteer services should be made available to retirees.
Muhammed, a member of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, said most pensioners end up squandering their retirement benefits because there are no post-retirement investment care for retirees.
He said he was a victim of lack of investment care after retirement as he sank his retirement savings into a business that flopped.
“I was not the only victim. I know people who retired, got their benefits and became confused on what to do with it,” he said.
He called for volunteer services to help retirees get busy in the absence of full-time employment and other engagements.