Cameroon

April 4, 2007

Retirement is a most dreaded word in the Cameroon civil service glossary. And it can be a most paradoxical issue, talking about retirement and retirees today in the Cameroonian context.

Retirement is supposed to be a post-service period during which a worker takes a deserved rest but the employer, in recognition for all the services rendered, continues to make a contribution, however small, to the material comfort of the retiree. This is one area in the Cameroonian civil service and even in the entire labour environment, where successive attempts to make retirement a veritable rest period, have always failed. Since independence, and even the period preceding independence, the problem of retirement or the payment of pensions has been one issue over which there have been tonnes and tonnes of literature on ways of improving the situation but which hardly ever have palpable results.

Meet even the latest arrival in the big world of retirees today. The problems you are likely to hear are as follows: They are asking me for a certificate stoppage of duty. They want a life certificate to attest that I am still alive. They want the most recent pay slip. They want my birth certificate etc. The provision of these documents is hardly ever enough. Aside from these, they would want the physical presence of the retiree in the entire administrative process. In many cases, this presence has only been useful because they are repeatedly told to go and fetch this or that document which, rather too often, disappears from the applicant's file.

Retirement in Cameroon is also seen by many as a journey towards the most dreaded hardships. Especially for certain professions, such as territorial administration, the armed forces, the police, the customs and other fiscal administrations. Here, any rupture with routine work could mean cuts in huge chunks of pecuniary advantages and other undue advantages. So when retirement time comes for these people, it's like a sheep being led to the slaughter house!

Cynicism ?

But in the face of all that is experienced, why have these numerous seminars, on ways of improving conditions of retired workers, never come up with definitive solutions so that things can be a lot easier? Somewhere along the line, one cannot help but condemn what one can describe as cynicism on the part of some decision-makers. The count-down towards retirement is same for everybody, even the youthful worker employed today. A worker employed today sees retirement day coming, even if in their reckoning it is too far away to be considered a matter for today's agenda.

It is so glaring that the hangmen of today become the victims of tomorrow. And nobody really seems so worried! There is no exaggeration, saying that our retirement policies have failed. Few people on retirement really beat their chests. Images of grim-faced senior citizens - visibly fighting anxiety, disease and old-age lined up in front of payment counters of the National Social Insurance Fund or those of the civil service one finds staggering helplessly around government treasuries at pay time - tell the story better.

Decision-makers of today need to be told that sooner, rather than later, they will be on retirement. It is in their own interest that a definitive solution be found for this cankerworm of civil service and the labour world.

Many initiatives have however been taken to improve the situation. But results are slow in coming. A case in point is the seminar organized last week by the Ministry of the Public Service on ways of easing pensioners' plight. But in their aggrieved situation many pensioners rather have something now than entertaining hopes engendered by these recurrent moves to improve matters. They seem to be saying that a bird in hand will always be better than two in the bush.