Last week was a tension-soaked one for Pa Clement Oyenuga. An engineer who had retired several years back after helping the government provide water for the teeming masses of the South-West states, he certainly deserved his rest. Since there is no provision for social welfare in the oil-rich Nigeria, while other less endowed countries of the world have institutionalised plans that ensure that all and sundry are catered for, no matter your status, octogenerians like Pa Oyenuga, are involved in a yearly ritual of survival.Having worked hard and retired, he expected nothing from government as a senior citizen other than the stipend that he gets paid as his pension. But things are not quite right with government institutions in Nigeria. That is why even though he should be in bed resting his weary bones, Pa Oyenuga is in church, praying for the good of Nigeria, his own Jerusalem.Citizens of other climes will certainly marvel at the old man's enthusiasm at that vigil. That is because earlier in the day, he had just returned from Abeokuta, where he had been forced to queue up for several hours with others and even some older than him for an exercise tagged 'verification'. Year in and out, the pension pay sheet has had this tendency to attract bugs which extend the pension list and make payment heavier for government. To guide against these wastes, government has therefore put in place a device that ensures that such additions are weeded out and they are usually tagged ghost pensioners. For this, sometimes, pensioners have to stay in the sun or rain for days, sometimes weeks because like the case of Pa Oyenuga last week, you may have to travel to the town or state of your last assignment and be told that it is not the turn of your ministry, grade level or particular state. The pensioners are therefore subjected to the torture of going back to their towns of domicille to return again when their colleagues alert them that it is time for them to be screened. And all these are pains for a man already pained, and probably drained by age and diseases.Pa Oyenuga had no time to rest after the vigil. As soon as the cock crowed, he was again at the Abeokuta bus motorpark to board a vehicle out of town, lest he misses his turn with the almighty men from Abuja, who had come to do the screening. If you miss your turn, the implication is that your pension is suspended until next year when another verification excercise is carried out to determine the actual number of pensioners on the government's payroll.Pa Oyenuga's children should count themselves lucky. Mr Olusa Ayodele's family was not that lucky as their patriach died on the queue in Akure, the Ondo State capital while waiting to be screened. According to one of his sons, who accompanied him to the screening point from Lagos, where he lived with his children after retirement, Baba had been ill, what evil can't old age wreak on a body, but because of the yearly screening ritual, he had to report at Akure so as not to miss his turn. That was where death snatched a man who should have died surounded by his children and grandchildren on a cosy bed. He returned to his children in a box. The shame of a nation so richly endowed.Pensioners have unwittingly become sacrificial lambs on the alter of government's corruption. How come since all these rounds of verification, government has not been able to evolve an iron-cast roll of her pensioners from before independence to at least the 80s in spite of the e-government'How come the new pensioners are not spared this agony since they retired when the computer had been introduced to government's business' Is the Nigerian government not ashamed that old men with sheaves of photocopied documents in their hands die annually at her doorsteps as a result of ineptitude' The point of arguement is usually that the lists are padded and that the added names then gets paid money which goes into private pockets, thus depriving government of badly-needed revenue. Contracts are then given out to family members and cronies to do jobs for which civil servants earn money monthly.This is the same lame excuse that money meant for fuel subsidy is actually going into private pockets that is behind the sin of fuel subsidy removal. I insist it is an unpardonable sin on the part of government because even though labour has become castrated, such that it will be unrealistic to expect any fruitful intervention from either NLC or TUC, the God of the powerless will punish every government officer and politician who have anything to do with the evolution of these life taking policies.It is time government begins to live up to her responsibilities. As long as the government cannot punish deviants who steal subsidy or pad pension payment lists, it has no moral justification to continue to punish hardworking people who have in the time of their strength served the government and people of this country well. It is a sign of incompetence on the part of the civil servants and politicians who rule this country.To think that some of them get paid peanuts as small as N2,000 per month, far less than the N25,000 Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was spending on buscuits to entertain guests when former President Segun Obasanjo moved her to the Foreign Affairs Ministry from Finance during her first missionary journey. Shame. Such shame!Lewis, omotayolewis@yahoo.com (08055001746)ReactionsRe: What work does Abati really do'Omotayo, do you want Abati to take over the Presidency from Jonathan before you will agree he is doing the job for which he was hired' You should have read his statement explaining away that the outrageous parade in Aso Villa on October 1, 2011 was not part of the anniversary but a mere weekly change of guards! Do dignitaries get invited to witness the weekly change of guard' Do pigeons get released. Do anniversary registers get signed' Do anniversary cakes get cut' You should be more concerned at the quality of Abati's work more than bellyache over your perception that he is being marginalized. Lying to Nigerians to cover presidential gaffes was the very reason his predecessor, Ima Niboro, was removed by lobbyists who felt that his press statement that Jonathan's convoy was not attacked in Kampala, Uganda, did not happen. Undue ethnic sentiments have never done anyone any good.Nnanna.ochereomen@yahoo.co.uk
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