Fractioned Pension and Retired Local Government Teachers in Kwara State, Nigeria: A Qualitative Study

Abstract: Over the years, retired civil servants in Nigeria have been battling with series of challenges. These challenges have made retirement dreadful to intending retirees and stressful to retirees. To this end, this paper explored the transitional experiences of retired teachers whose gratuity and pensions are directly administered by the local government areas in Kwara State. Kwara is one of the 36 States in Nigeria with a population of about 2.3 million. It is an agrarian and a civil service State, with limited commercial orientation until very recently. There are 16 local government areas (LGAs) in the State. The actual figure of retired local government teachers in the State was unavailable to the researchers. Qualitative methods of investigation were utilized. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were employed to access the study participants across 4 local government areas in the State. In-depth interviews were conducted on 20 retired local government teachers in the State. This was supplemented with eight gender based focus group discussion (FGD). Six participants constituted each FGD session. The interview sessions continued until the point of saturation (when subsequent interviews added little or nothing new to data that had been gathered) was achieved. In-depth interview sessions lasted between 45 and 63 minutes, while FGD lasted 1hour 57 minutes on the average. Constant comparative analysis of grounded theory was employed for the purpose of analysis. As per this analytical method, open, axial, and selective coding steps were followed in that order. Data gathering and analyses were done iteratively. Findings of the study showed that retired local government teachers in Kwara State, Nigeria: (1) were recurrently and rigorously screened at short notices; (2) were owed gratuity for several years; (3) pensions were irregular and paid in varying percentages from the year 2016 to date; and (4) post-retirement years were characterized by health and acute financial challenges; (5) took to petty trading, subsistent farming, and cut down attendance at financially demanding social gatherings. Retired local government teachers in the State expressed their lack of fulfillment in the post-retirement years. They called for local government autonomy throughout Nigeria as an important step to putting an end to their ordeals.

Key words: retirement, constant comparative analysis, grounded theory, point of saturation