08/11/2025
Recently, I spoke with a business man who is approaching his retirement age and he told me how he shared his family lands among his four sons and reserved one for himself and when I asked to know why he reserved one, Baba said it's in case they get too busy and refused to take care of him in old age so he would sell it and use the money to take care of himself and his wife, hence no body will pay them any pension.
That discussion led me to think about another retired chief like that. He was once a rich businessman but had exhausted himself and liquidated his business to train all his children in the best secondary schools and universities in the country and beyond, which led him to have different professionals like doctors, lawyers, etc., in his family. Then I kept wondering how he ended up retiring like a poor, unhappy, and unkept man who struggles to feed himself. It dawned on me that his children were still seeing him as the rich man he used to be and never bothered to take care of him.
It gets so bad that anytime his wife travels for Omugwo, she will spend up to six months before returning home. The last time I heard the chief complain was the day that he was telling his daughter who lives abroad on the phone to bring back his wife whom they took from him over a year that he's suffering loneliness and hunger and the daughter asked him “Papa, obudi onye kaba, obebe?”
You see, more than 90% businessmen in Africa fail to make proper retirement plans when they are still experiencing cash flow and they think that life will continue to be smooth, or hope that their children will reciprocate the high level of upkeep they gave them.
Some would work so hard, to raise their children and ensure that they are well established in life; then, when it’s the turn of the children to return the love and care, they will abandon them to age in penury.
Some odogwus are busy donating money at social gatherings where they use their names to sing “idi anyi mma mbo mbo…” but they have aged parents who worry over daily bread, wear the same torn clothes every time, and drink water from dirty streams.
Some aged couples who raised their children with different househelps to relieve the children from housework so they can concentrate on their studies are now struggling and suffering loneliness and the children won't bother to get a houseboy or employ one caregiver for them.
Some mothers who have irresponsible rich children attend village events with nylon and empty bottles to get extra food and drinks while their children are sponsoring drinks at friends' hangouts every night and do dorime at nightclubs every week.
I met a young man who was telling me how he lost money in his business and how he was struggling to bounce back, The same day he was saying it, an engineer was installing a very large smart TV that he bought for close to two million naira. He said he will take the old smart TV into his room. I asked him “How is your mom’s business?” he said “She is just managing her small kiosk business and she has been complaining that she needs funds for her business” I told him, “Oga, go and establish your widowed mother so that God will establish you.”
Wise children change their aged parents' lives, not just bringing one bag of rice every Christmas and one wrapper every Mother's Day, no!
Look into their lives, depending on your capacity, arrange with a family doctor or family nurse who should always give them medical care, and send you the bill and you pay. You can even arrange for a family errand young man. Someone mobile, maybe an Okada or Keke driver that you will be giving a monthly allowance to help them with any logistic issues.
You may go as far as to renovate their apartment, remove that stinking old rug and tile the house, change that rag-looking curtains, rebuild those dilapidated upholstery set, change the TV and radio to modern ones, change their wardrobes, get the man some chieftain andasual dresses, red and black caps, different colors of shoes, eye glasses, wrist watch, belt, good android phone, buy your mama some braided hair, different bangles, different colors of hand bags, different colors and types of footwears, overhaul her kitchen utensils, ensure they upgrade to water system toilet and not the pit type, repaint that house, put solar system for them, if they are in their property and you have the fund, drill borehole with solar system and connect it around the gate, allow the neighborhood to come and fetch free water there, they will respect your parents, sell that scrap vehicle they parked since years immemorial and get them a new bike or small car if they can still drive, if you have the money and the connection, fly them abroad, and give them a reason to enjoy life and live longer for you.
Your aging parents deserve a good life. If you have the funds, change their lives and stop pressing the calculator or arguing with your siblings about who should take the responsibility because blessed is the hand that giveth than the one that taketh.
I you love this advice, please share it so that your friends can see it.
Have a blessed day!
Matt Chukwudi TV
