90-year-old asked to bring 1950 appointment letter to get pension(PHOTO)

He flashes a warm smile as he settles into the sofa at a corner of the living room. It is a modest one – a six-seater overlooking a tiny shelf housing a 21-inch television set, a video compact disc player and a radio that has seen the best of time, everything in and around the room testifies to the simplicity of its occupant. Now almost 91, with all of his children married and his wife and best friend of many years ‘gone to be with the Lord’, Pa Jacob Kehinde Babajide’s life has become even quieter these days especially since August 2010 when his monthly pension was abruptly stopped. Apart from now having to depend squarely on the financial support of his children to survive, the psychological effect of the entire experience has compounded the old man’s agony.



“Nobody gave me any reason for stopping my pension,” the nonagenarian said, pausing for a few seconds before continuing with the emotional narrative. “I just noticed that I didn’t get alert from the bank anymore. There is this lady I used to contact at the pension office; she was the one who helped me before they paid me some arrears till August 2010. Since then, I haven’t heard anything.

“When I contacted her again, she said I should bring the copy of my pay slip from the bank. I sent it to her, then she phoned back saying I should bring my first letter of appointment which I received on July 10, 1950. Don’t you see they don’t want to pay the money? Where on earth do they expect me to get the letter? If you calculate very well, I got that letter about 64 years ago.

“She told me that the person she normally contacted said unless I brought that letter, a letter which I got before he was born, they would not pay me. But for my sons and daughters, my condition would have been very terrible.”

The last four years have not been easy for the Oke-Igbo, Ondo State-born grandfather– deprivation and challenges have come in different forms. Though, Babajide told Saturday PUNCH that he has no regrets giving 35 years of his life to serving the nation diligently, this was not the type of retirement he looked forward to while joining the accounts department of the now defunct Post and Telegrams under the Ministry of Communications on July 10, 1950. The situation leaves him deeply worried.

“I have an extension behind my flat, the place is almost crumbling. If this money had come, I could have rebuilt it and be living better. Nowadays I depend only on my children to send me money, when they don’t, I suffer.

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