Upper chamber of Parliament and job seeking during old age

Some senior citizens and other persons who served Uganda either in elective offices or in the public service, but have since been retired have started an interesting conversation.

They claim they are still useful –which is true - and need an arrangement to have their usefulness benefit society. All is well until the point when they literally beg to be given a chance to sponge off society.

The former MPs, many of whom barely have opinions recorded in the Hansard, want to be accommodated in a newly created ‘upper chamber’ of Parliament. It is here that they intend to help the country with their ‘legislative knowledge and experience.’

The other elders though vague on which vehicle they will travel to share their golden usefulness, still point to the same destination as the politicians. That is a public funded forum or reorganised office, complete with titles, where they sit and dispense the badly needed knowledge.

The whole issue is the dilemma of African life and the whole concept of how we understand our purpose in life. Who we are and what we live for. What we envisage as our dreams and how we intend to fulfil them. It is something deeply philosophical.
Societies and civilisations endure and prosper because every generation works towards the betterment of that society. People work hard to leave the society better than they found it. Their lives are about a better tomorrow for society as the insurance for ones future and security. It involves doing things from which one may never benefit.

That is the basis of the inventions and innovations we import and enjoy from the Western world. The text message or whatsapp is the great, great, grandchild of the letters we posted at the Post Office years ago, which took months to reach the recipients.

The call by voters and policy makers for increased investment in technology, science, health, education, security, law and order, transport, etc, is an investment and insurance policy for both society and the individual.

That is the irony. To secure your own interest as an individual to ensure that there is investment in the interest of society. To keep your wealth, spread it out and it will come back to you. Strive to make society better for your own benefit. A lot of the assistance African countries receive, including aid, grants, etc, are partly to ensure that the recipients become viable future markets.

Many of our forefathers would give out land to build churches, mosques and schools so that their neighbourhoods would be populated with people with good morals and skills. Doctors, teachers, drivers and engineers would come from there. Some of such people would come back to help them in their old age.

The habit in most parts of Africa and Uganda is that many people who get a job in the public service or in politics work for the ‘future of their children first. The meaning here is grab as much as possible from society to secure the future for yourself and family at the expense of society. There is very little spared for the social safety net.

The result is that people end up voting for huge salaries and allowances for themselves, while shooting down attempts by teachers, nurses, doctors, policemen, etc, to get a pay raise. So we end up with schools, hospitals, roads and other social amenities run down. Yet as we grow older, our health deteriorates and we need good medical attention, which we may not get when out of the comfort of Parliament and the public service.

The teacher we did not think about worked with poor facilitation and motivation and delivered lousy students. Nearly every service such students render society is mediocre and society suffers, including those who spent their prime ‘planning for their children.’ Many end up unemployed and a security threat as they target the wealth of those who spent their prime planning for their children as a source of livelihood.

The doctor can hardly work in the conditions and with the salary that we did nothing to improve when we still had the opportunity as civil servants and MPs. Yet the option of flying to India on taxpayers’ money is no longer viable when one is out of office.

With the savings many made when in service dwindling very fast because they no longer have the supplement of free medical, education, phone, housing, vehicle and fuel allowances, a state of panic ensures. They suffer a hangover and nostalgia and dream about the good old days when society subsidised their lifestyles.

That is the basis of the call for upper chambers. It is more about job seeking in old age and having a free ride at the expense of society than old people being useful to society in the evening of their lives.

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. [email protected]
Twitter:@nsengoba