Life as we all know evolves in stages.
From
birth, we begin the process of aging. All things being equal, majority
of us will grow old. Thus it will be apt to say that aging is inevitable
for us. So why do we as a society pay the least attention to this
process. What kinda welfare system should we have in order to adequately
take care of our aged, (The old people in our society/parents or
relatives) especially the ones we love.
For
three years before my father passed, he was never paid his pension. My
mum is going through the same thing. I keep wondering, what if the
financial or emotional means to take care of them was lacking, they
probably will be like some of our aged pensioners who probably die
standing in line waiting for their pension that never came.
I
am of the opinion we are not doing enough as a society. It is
deplorable that so many people work and expend all their energy and when
they become old, there’s no one to really take care of them. In one
episode of my radio show (Talk Junction), we talked about the need for
parents to ensure that they bond with their children because we believe
that children who have a close bond with their parents are the ones most
likely to take charge and care of them in their old age. That’s the way
society is meant to evolve. we as children should be the ones to look
after our parents, yes it is the African way. They slaved and spent all
their lives looking after us so it is expected that we in return should
take care of them. My parents lived with me for several years after
their retirement. My widowed mum is 97 years old and I can’t imagine her
living anywhere else but with me. Being the primary caregiver and
living again under the same roof with your parents is an enormous role
reversal.
Most of us living with aged
parents find it difficult to balance our own busy schedules with
looking after an aged parent so much so that sometimes it could be
misconstrued as not caring. For some, it could be that the global
financial mess, has left us thinking about self and our survival only.
But this piece is about those who can but don’t want to. I am of the
opinion that not just government but also the corporate bodies need to
focus more on developing policies that protect this age bracket. In more
developed society it is very easy to see a nursing home systems that
caters to the old people but how effective can that be in our country.
This is a place where most pensioners can’t even get access to their
pension after retirement. Corruption has eaten so deep into our various
systems that even the basic are not provided by the system. For
me nursing homes are so impersonal and that is not our culture in
Africa.
For people like us who don’t
have the benefits of earning any pension, we are on our own. God forbid
that in our old age we become either a liability to our children or
worse still, a liability to ourselves. We have all seen the antecedents
of government towards the aged and until a miracle happens, I’m not sure
that will change anytime soon. I have never worked for anyone so what
I’ve done is that through all the years, I have consistently put aside a
monthly savings in a fixed account on regular basis which I haven’t
touched for over 30 years despite sometimes my financial hardship.
Planing, saving and discipline is the key to making the twilight years
of our lives easier.
A lot of people
wake up to the reality that after years of service, they don’t have much
to show for it and that can lead to bitterness in old age. My summary
on this will be to advice all of us to learn to cultivate the habit of
saving for this phase of our life’s. We must imbibe the attitude of
saving for the rainy day and our old age is the rainy day.
One
day, we as parents won’t be able to drive, to climb stairs, or maybe
even change our own clothes or feed ourselves. As painful as thinking
about this might be, we need to prepare for our comfort and safety in
the last stages of our lives. My prayer for us parents is to have
children who will keep us company in our old age maybe take care of us
with love and anything else.
Ka chineke mezieokwu.
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