A new investigation by BBC Africa Eye into pensions in Nigeria has uncovered an unfair and corrupt system which leaves some elderly people sick and penniless, with government workers soliciting extra payments before paying out pensions, people arbitrarily being declared ‘dead’ and having to prove they are alive before their pension is reinstated, and politicians being offered outrageous retirement packages.

The five month investigation began when Africa eye was approached by Obaji Akpet – a reporter / producer from Cross River State (Southern Nigeria) (Photo), who told us that his mother, a nurse, did not start getting her pension payments as would be normal, when she retired and that she was being asked to pay cash directly to an official working in the pension department before they would pay out her pension.

Via a hidden camera Obaji filmed a civil servant accepting money for herself, and suggesting senior managers in the department also needed to be paid before the pension paperwork would go through.

Despite these payments being made, Obaji’s mother’s (Photo below) pension didn’t arrive until for five months later, a delay that caused her extreme financial problems and left her feeling like she was “in hell fire” and “no more a human being.”

Read more @The Sierra Leone Telegraph