The fate of man is to live, grow old, and die. But this is only occasionally. Many times, men barely live before they die. As time passes, changes sometimes happen on a large scale and at other times on a smaller scale. But one thing time does is to strip everything of its essence, laying bare all that man is destined and designed to hide. Many times in the life of a man, the shock of what is laid bare is often too much to bear.
Years after retiring from the Nigeria Police Force, many former police officers are eating the sour fruits of trees they helped plant, water, and nurture while in service. For months now, protests have erupted occasionally in Abuja by police retirees denouncing the delay and irregularities in the management of their pension and demanding that it be paid without further delay.
As they beat placards and pound words into pikes with which to impale the government, which they think has failed, do the police retirees hear only their feeble voices demanding the government do the impossible by suddenly becoming transparent and competent, or do they hear in their increasingly strained voices the pleas, ,cries, and sighs of many of those they victimized and oppressed for the government while they were in active service?
After all, as serving police officers, many of them collected bribes on the road with glee; they effected illegal arrests and detention and extorted Nigerians. They pushed back at protesters, emptying canisters of tear gas. In fact, many of them were active protagonists in some of the worst atrocities committed against Nigerians in the name of law enforcement. Today, they are wailing everywhere, asking for the same government to give them their entitlements. Clearly, they ignorantly think that a leopard. Can change its spots.
The cold hard reality these police retirees must now live with is that Nigeria is eager to discard them like trash. Having milked them dry in their prime, the country is happy to happen to them. That, in a nutshell, is what Nigeria does to those who serve it.It’s a compromised system, which is a tool for a corrupt and inept government that does not reward service. It punishes it by withholding the necessary benefits from those who are not willing to do more than just serve to get them.
Maybe it is age that is doing a number on the police retirees; maybe it is just the unforgiving weather or the profound stress of asking for what should come to them with ease. But it is still a surprise that the police retirees are expressing what seems to be surprise at how shabbily they have been treated.
Many of them worked to foster an odious and oppressive system. It is hypocritical that they are now protesting, somehow expecting Nigerians whom they harried and harassed not long ago to join them in heckling a clearly hard government of hearing.
The quest to make Nigeria better should be considered everyone’s responsibility. Until this is done, no one will be able to escape the dysfunction that drives many to their early graves.
Ike Willie-Nwobu is a policy practitioner and social thinker. He can be reached at Ikewilly9@gmail.com
