Nigeria's social security net

[Richard Akindele]

What happens to a person in Nigeria once he or she reaches retirement age and can no longer work? The answer is, he relies solely on family for support.

If he's lucky and has owned a home in his lifetime, he at least, would then have a roof over his head. Otherwise, he has to live with some member of the family, or end up leading a miserable lifestyle until the end.

One of the reasons Nigerians tend to have many children they mostly cannot take care of, is that they're counting on those children assuming the responsibility of taking care of them at retirement. Clearly, in an overpopulated place like Nigeria, the last thing people should be thinking of is making more babies. It's quite easy to have a child. But not so easy to provide the best life for that child. Most Nigerians cannot afford to send their children to school, yet they keep having these children. In the same vein, most cannot afford the best medical care, or adequate nutrition.

A typical Nigerian perceives having many children as an investment for the future, irrespective of the fact that the more overpopulated we are, the worse our standard of living gets.

The system in Nigeria is deeply flawed and needs re-organizing.

The best way to fix a problem is to first ask if a similar problem has been encountered elsewhere. If so, has it been solved? If so, how was it solved? That should get you started on the road toward a viable solution to the problem.

In this case, the countries to look to as far as getting the best care to retirees are nations like the USA, UK, Canada, etc.

The USA has Social Security benefits for its seniors. Canada has Old Age Security (OAS) program and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). The UK has National Insurance.

The way it works is that a percentage of every working individual's pay is taken out by the government each pay day. That money is kept by the government until the individual retires. A certain amount of money is then given to the individual each month after retirement, until death.

The amount an individual receives monthly is commensurate to the amount paid in over his lifetime.

I'm not naive about how corrupt our system is in Nigeria. Any money handled by the government is likely to be stolen, thwarting the whole plan of providing support for the elderly when he retires.

However, we must never accept the status quo as impossible to solve. We need to keep pushing in every way we can for reform.