Foreign affairs minister calls for improved pension for retirees

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has called  for a better pension system for Nigerian retirees.

Onyeama said a better pension system makes it possible for retirees to live comfortably after their working years.

Speaking during a send-forth party for 58 members of staff and diplomats who retired from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2017, Onyeama emphasised the need to make retirement and pension attractive.

Onyeama further said in making retirement and pension attractive, staff would be excited and look forward to retirement like in other climes.

“I always remember where I worked for about 30 years. It is an international system. A lot of people usually plan for early retirement.

“They wanted to still be young to engage with their family again because they have been so taken for so many years and want to give them the attention they deserved.

 “Also, to be able to do so many other things they have not been able to do before, and to go on trips they have never embarked on before and read books they have never read.

“So, they always look forward to retirement as a wonderful opportunity to live instead of existing and working.

“But I suppose this works well where we have systems that have pension system and so forth, that really make it possible to live comfortably after your working years.

“And this, of course, is not always the case that we have here. So, we still have a lot of work to do from that aspect in really making retirement and pension something that one can really look forward to,” Onyeama said.

Speaking earlier, Onyeama urged the retirees to explore new avenues in retirement, saying that there is life after retirement.

He urged the retirees to see retirement as an opportunity to do new things in life, even as he said there is always life after retirement.