…Makes Case For Pensioners
THE idea of loathing to appreciate what good one has done in order to add value to the person’s life doesn’t seem to have any space in Elder. Celestine Obiekwunye.
In other words, he is not one that leaves anything worth rewarding unrewarded.
He is unequivocal when it comes to telling you how his wife has impacted (and still) impacting positively in his business which he always prefer calling ‘our business’ because of the much value his wife added to the business empire.
‘I have seen some women rather than trying to ensure their husbands’ businesses stand, help in ruining such businesses. But I thank God today that the type of wife He gave to me is exemplary and women who like emulating good qualities have always copied her. That I have a business that is glowing, a thriving business is as a result of my wife’s laudable contributions. In fact, she is my backbone. What I’m today is as a result of my wife. If I’m not there, she is there for me. She is playing her role well as a wife and a mother.’
Elder Celestine Obiekwunye business spans the hospitality and medicine and is a well-known foodstuff merchant in Ika land, especially in Ika east area where retail foodstuff sellers from neighbouring communities of Mbiri, Ekwuoma, Igbodo, Owerri-Olubor, Akumazi-umuocha, Ute-Ogbeje, Otolokpo, Ute-Okpu come all the way to patronize him and his wife.
Today, the HND holder in Hotel Management, who is the Chairman, CEO of the popular VIP Guest House, Umunede, a name which he is highly identified with, is the Zonal Chairman, Umunede Zone of National Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED), comprising of most of the above-named communities. He is also a Christian Elder at the Winners Church at Umunede where he is the Chairman.
As a socialite, he belongs to several organizations which believes in reaching out to the less privileged, the downtrodden in the society. He lives and believes that there is always tomorrow unlike some other privileged persons.
He did not rise immediately to become a hotel proprietor having worked in some major hospital industries especially in Benin-City.
Speaking on the present economic challenges staring wide on Nigeria and her citizens, Elder Celestine Obiekwunye, a father of five, two male and three female, four of whom are already graduates, says Nigeria stands to witness soon great economic tsunami if the country’s leadership fail to address the current prevailing situation ushered in by the removal of oil subsidy, which according to him, has brought in more economic challenges than the robust living conditions its removal intended.
He says the only way out of the economic doldrums being faced by the country and majority of her citizens is for the President to listen to the general outcry of many suffering Nigerians and do the needful for them in order to stem the hunger and extreme starvation in the land occasioned by the harsh economic reality of the moment plaguing the masses, saying actions being taken by the leaders are seen as not even being close to half measures, and their pleads seen as falling under half-truth.
He says nothing seems to fall the hands of a leader more before those he purports to be leading than not telling the truth but pretends to be doing so even when it is obvious you as the leader knows you are not even an itch close the truth.
Still bemoaning the current state of economic hardship being faced by the masses, the Umunede-based businessman said even when solutions to the problems are there before these so-called leaders, they chose to be seeing them as mirage because they prefer to be short-sighted and see the country plunged deep into the very abyss of nothingness than to see conduit pipe through which they selfishly siphon the commonwealth, blocked.
Elder Celestine Obiekwunye, a businessman who does not just start sharpening his cutlass until he has found something to cut, a guiding philosophy has been greatly propelling the force in his business successes.
When Elder Celestine Obiekwunye is not seen to be too busy with his business, he reads the bible and play with his children.
Elder Celestine Obiekwunye, though not a pensioner, would want a situation where workers are settled either before getting into retirement or immediately they retired to become pensioners. He says that way, the civil service job or other works that are pensionable will then become very interesting for the younger ones to join, explaining that it is for this reason the private sector, in those good days as well as the civil service and other jobs were embraced by job seekers because they get their gratuities immediately they retired and start receiving their pensions at no time far from the date of their retirement.
He laments that the idea of withholding gratuities and pensions now is more prevalent in the civil service job and says something urgent should be done to reverse the trend, saying he knows a handful of those who retired and did not start getting their entitlements after about five to six years, and says regrettably, some of them died in the process while waiting to get their gratuities and start receiving their pensions.
Elder Celestine Obiekwunye decrying such painful act, said when such pensioners die without getting their entitlements, it becomes a battle for the children of such deceased pensioners to get their parents money, regretting that at times they end up not getting the money, asking a very pertinent question, ‘Who then collect the money when the children of such deceased pensioner are not able to get it because of the load of frustration and other encumbrances mounted by officials of the pension board?’
He said government should learn how to treat their elder statesmen and women because they worked until they left the job either as a result of attaining the age of retirement or serving out the required age needed before retiring. ‘These are senior citizens that are supposed to resting and being subjected to rigorous screening and staying on long queues at their age. Some in the process of the excruciating screening, slump and die without getting the benefits of working for the nation, it is bad.’ He lamented.
