Corruption: What lessons are you teaching the young ones?

I worked very hard all my life; kept my hands off government money and property; refused bribes camouflaged as ‘gifts of appreciation’ for services rendered for which I told them I was paid by my employers; denounced subordinates who requested for bribes before or after giving their services; disciplined assistants and colleagues caught asking for gratification and looked forward to a quiet retirement on my pension, confident that if I managed to live modestly as I have hitherto lived, it should take care of my needs.

“Today, I sit back gazing at the sky and wondering if I had not been stupid! It took over two years to collect my gratuity! I have received only one month’s pension out of 14 months’ owed. And nobody seems to care! No one has offered any explanations. Yet, I spend, every month, N15,000 on my glaucoma medications, N8,000 on my hypertensive medications, spend N18,000 on housekeeping and about N25,000 on food and other necessities per month. Mind you, all these costs are monthly! And my pension is several months behind!

“Worse still, despite the so-called recession, I still see the opulence displayed by the unfeeling legislators and some government officials. Didn’t I read in the newspapers that the legislators spent N3billion on special cars for 28 of them?

Aren’t government officials still being flown abroad for overseas treatment whilst those of us, whose only sin is that we served our nation faithfully and did no wrong are left with no income to buy simple medicines for survival?

“Where am I supposed to find the money? I am now 75 years old and unemployable. My sight is failing and I experience breathlessness on mild exertion. My physician tells me my heart is failing from the burden of high blood pressure. I miss my medications every now and then because, quite often, I have no money to buy them. It’s really demeaning having to beg for assistance from friends and neighbours to keep body and soul together and to buy my medications. Sometimes, I get medications from my doctor with a promise to pay later.

“I try not to bother my children. All three of them graduated with First Class honours. Only one of them has a real job with a state government. And the salary is laughable! Even then, he hasn’t been paid for several months. The other two started a PURE WATER making venture and barely make enough for their upkeep. At 38, 35 and 31, they are yet unmarried. Their excuse? They can’t afford to raise a family on their ‘income and no income’.

“What do I tell them and their friends? Do I tell them to be upright, law-abiding, incorruptible and end up, like me, in abject poverty? Or “plan” for the future by taking “gifts” when offered and by asking for small “reliefs” or “donations” for future retirement needs just in case their employers refuse to meet their obligations to them in their old age?

“But fortunately, I really don’t have to tell them anything. My unwritten life’s story tells it all. They “live” it with me. My story is not complete without theirs and theirs is incomplete without mine. I can only appeal to their already developed sense of justice and fairness – that two wrongs don’t make a right and that diligence and uprightness are daily rewarded in the inner recesses of our minds and thoughts.

“That there is no greater benefit than to have a mind and heart that is free of fear of being haunted by the sins of one’s youth or recent past. That it would bring a big shame to one’s children and grandchildren to be led in handcuffs to the court room for fraud committed several years before when you thought your sins had been ‘covered’?”

You can’t fight corruption by rhetoric. The fight is not by mouthing it, but by strengthening the mind and thought processes on the one hand and by ensuring that a labourer gets a sustainable wage for a day’s labour. Even the Scriptures (Luke 10:7) says, “The worker is worthy of his wages.”

It is trite law (pure common sense) that to pay a worker anything below a sustainable wage for a full day’s job, or unjustly deny a worker his wage is to be morally and equally responsible for any misdemeanour committed by the worker. Added to these, there must be security of tenure and a guarantee of an adequate and regular pension to meet the basic needs of the worker after retirement.

These are not my words or thoughts. They are words and thoughts, spoken and unspoken, by people all around me. Many who never begged in their life have been reduced to old age beggars just because their pensions are in default. It’s criminal neglect to deny a worker his salary at the end of the month or refuse to pay a pensioner his pension regularly. The various arms of governments are making a mockery of the fight against corruption.