Octogenarian Olu Joshua Osunsanmi stopped short as the reporter approached for an interview. To him, it was sheer novelty to see the media approach elders for interview, “in this age that nobody is keen to be guided history.”
As he reclined on his sofa to reel off stories with fond memories of the days of yore, 83-year-old Osunsanmi was visibly shaken. He lamented over the rot in modern Nigeria, saying that if only the younger generation could retrace its steps and embrace honesty, then there would be hope for a total rejuvenation.
“I must not deceive you, this society is in serious trouble. People want to make money without working. In the colonial days when we were young, things were not like this. There was dignity in labour and this was a legacy the white people bequeathed on us but which we soon discarded after self-rule,” he lamented.
But while mulling on this string of socio-cultural drift in Nigerians’ conduct, Pa Osunsanmi, widower and father of eight, is patently wrought that in the last 15 years, the Federal Government had withheld his pension, thus subjecting him and his family to years of hustling and excruciating hunger.
“I believe that once you retired from government work and you are of age, you are expected to be supported with your monthly pension. But the Federal Government stopped paying our pension 15 years ago. They said they would be paying through the Lagos State Government but they reneged on their promise.
“Many of my colleagues had died in the course of being asked to report at Ikeja, today, Ikoyi tomorrow all to no avail. Many of them that are still alive are down with stroke or one form of disease or the other.
“I thank God that I am still alive, I am barely surviving on the house agency and caretaker jobs that I have been doing to feed. Imagine, at 83, I still run around with young, energetic men to do middleman job for people looking for houses. This is not fair to an old man,” a distraught Osunsanmi submitted.
Pa Osunsanmi was born in Okeluse, a community in the former Owo division of Ondo State, an area that is currently under Ifon Local Government area. He attended Saint Paul’s Anglican School, Okelusi, and attained the requisite Standard Six of the era, in 1952 before he relocated to Lagos to take up a job with the Federal Ministry of Works, in the engineering department that saw to infrastructure in all federal hospitals.
Then, according to him, he was in charge of issuing LPO for all contracts awarded, an avenue which some other person would have used to enrich himself but that he lived above aboard in the discharge of his duties.
LIFE IN THOSE DAYS
Talking about his life as a young man, he said, “Life in those days cannot be compared with what is happening presently. I belong to the colonial era. The colonial masters, whom we call the white men, were far better and sincere than our Nigerian people in government nowadays.
“If the white men were to stay much longer in the country, they would have built some quality structures, I mean basic infrastructural development such as roads, housing, and schools. Apart from that, there would have been effective laws and regulations guiding every citizen. Our constitution is neither here nor there.”
He expressed his displeasure over the way things had changed negatively in Nigeria. “The government we had then was different from the ones we have now. There was not much desperation for power or the high level of corruption as we have now. For instance, I had the opportunity to embezzle money when I was in office, but I could not because we were not brought up that way.
“I was in charge of the local purchase order, at the engineering department while working in the federal ministry of works. I did not abuse that office. My department was in charge of all the construction works in the country then.
“Some of my colleagues that are equally old like me have between two to three houses, but I have just one. If I had wanted to have about four houses, it would have been possible, but discipline and trust were my watch words. The secret to long life is honesty. I retired voluntarily in 1976, after working for 19 years,” he said.
Osunsanmi said crimes were never prevalent in his days. “There were nothing like kidnapping, high level of bribery and corruption, ritual killings or 419 during that period,”
LAMENTATION
He also lamented that presently, people do not want to work, but want to reap where they did not sow. “They want easy gains and to acquire wealth by all means. Even the Bible says that there is dignity in labour, the youths of nowadays have a worrisome picture of irresponsibility. How do we explain a situation where majority of our young people is into a nasty game called “yahoo-yahoo?” This is unacceptable, and there must be an urgent move to address the anomaly.”
He regretted that the present government was not doing enough in the area of youth empowerment. “If the Nigerian government is being run the way the colonial masters managed the country, everybody would have been enjoying by now.
He said most Nigerians were not honest people and were economical with the truth. “Do you know that if I had not followed my conscience, I would have been very rich by now? It will also surprise you to know that my pension has not been paid for 15 years. Is there any honest government that can treat it elderly citizens like that? That is why I said that Nigeria does not have honest leaders.”
“Most of the structures you find in Ikoyi Lagos, Calabar and most of other parts of the country were built by the colonial masters, and they are still very solid. Although people complained that the white men were siphoning our money to their country, but in all I still give credit to them because of their sincerity in many other areas.
“When Nigeria got her independence and took over, they became selfish. They could not even continue developing the country where the white people stopped. Again, this leads me into saying that Nigeria got her independence very early.
“If the white men were to stay much longer in the country, there would have built some quality structures, I mean basic infrastructural development such as roads, housing, and schools. Apart from that, there would have been effective laws and regulations guiding every citizen. Our constitution is neither here nor there,”
Elder Osunsanmi noted that other African countries like South Africa, South Sudan that got their Independent a bit late have a great level of development in their region, when compared to Nigeria.
