Gyang Bere, Jos
In this clime, the cliché, “a teacher’s reward is in heaven” has become a standard statement of consolation for the pitiful condition of those in the teaching profession. But in the case of one teacher, the maxim, against the background of his current predicament, is akin to rubbing salt on his injury. The precarious condition of 83-year-old Da. Pam Dauda Gyang (who retired 32 years ago after long years of meritorious service) is rather pathetic. Not only has life reduced him to a beggar, but survival for him has also become a daily torture.
His catalogue of woes includes an ailing aged wife who has been bedridden with stroke since the past five years.
Of his wife, he said: “She is now like a skeleton, she can’t walk or speak and to eat is a serious battle because the food is not even there.”
Lamenting his plight, he said: “I don’t know what I have done to deserve this hardship. I never committed any crime or go to school late when I was serving as a teacher, yet I am being paid back with hardship, hunger, poverty and left to die in my old age. If the government allows me to die without my giving me the reward of my sweat, I will be the greatest loser here on earth.”
How his life turns to hell
This is the summary of Gyang’s predicament: Since his retirement in 1987, he has not been paid a dime out of his entitlement––neither gratuity nor pension––despite that he has followed all the procedures, having presented his documents and a file opened for him in the pension office in Abuja.
“My file is already with the board but they didn’t do anything about it. I went to Abuja to find out what was happening with my retirement benefits. Fortunately, the Permanent Secretary, John Hirse, was from Plateau and had previously chaired the Pension Board.
“I complained to him and he sent for one of the directors in charge of files who assured that they are working on it. I spent a lot of money travelling to Abuja to find out what has happened to my retirement benefits. The last time I visited the Pension Board, the senior director told me the person in charge of my file has been retired.
“And I said: so I will not get my retirement benefits because the person has been retired? Did the person took the files to his house?”
At that point, he didn’t know what to do next.
“So, I stopped going to Abuja in 1998 after several frustrations,” he said.
Though he wrote a petition to the chairman of Federal Public Complaint Commission, there has been not been any positive result.
“Former Deputy Governor, Dame Pauline Tallen promised last year to find out what is happening. When President Muhammadu Buhari visited Plateau, she asked me to bring my documents, which I submitted to her. She promised to take care of the whole thing.”
Sadly, that effort also dead-ended. “Since then, I have not heard from her. I have been calling her line but it is not going; I have visited her house many times in Jos but I have not met with her.”
His Near Death Experience
Listening to an account of the octogenarian’s storied life will make even the most hard-hearted human being shed tears.
He narrated to Saturday Sun his near death experience. His words: “In 1978, I was on official duty to Jos with my colleague. On our way back to our duty post in Pankshin, we had an accident between Panyam and Pushit in Plateau State. We ran into a stationary trailer. I suffered a broken skull, with a gaping hole on my forehead and I lost consciousness. We were certified dead by the doctor on duty, Dr Dandaura (who was dismissed from service after his action. My body was abandoned in the mortuary for some hours.
As fate would have it, the Medical Superintendent chose that day to travel to Jos to find out everything about the hospital. When he was informed that some staff of Government College Pankshin had an accident, he asked who was involved and was shocked to hear that one of the casualties was a certain Mr PD Gyang.
What! Dr Shedrack had shouted in consternation (because I was his personal friend). He asked to see the corpse and he was brought to the mortuary. He requested for testing equipment and upon examining me, discovered that I was still breathing. He ordered that I should be taken to the emergency ward. Immediately, he performed an operation. I was in the hospital for two weeks before I regained consciousness.
I was flown to Kano for treatment at Kano Teaching Hospital. After six months, I was discharged. But I was having a problem with my eyes because a vein that led to my eye was affected. I used to go to the University College Hospital Ibadan for treatment after my discharge from Kano Orthopedic Hospital.
The federal government did not do anything concerning the medical bill. But my students in Government Girls College Dala Kano footed the bill. They paid about N1.2 million; if it were today, the bill would run into several millions of naira.”
Now in his old age, Gyang is battling with a disorder, an affliction of strange skin disease.
“I woke up in the morning (in 2018) and my children sighted some spots on my face,” he recounted. “I went to the hospital and they prescribed some drugs for me. When I started taking them, the spots spread all over my face and body. People said there is no drug in the hospital that can treat this type of ailment. I was advised to use herbs which I have been taking and it has brought a little relief.”
The battle for survival
The greatest battle for Gyang is how to survive day by day. “I have been battling for survival without remuneration of any kind,” he said. “My son has been taking care of me. My wife has been sick for five years now; she had a stroke, and now can’t walk and she can’t talk.”
He broke into tears
“My last daughter has been doing everything in the last four years. She used to take my wife to a private hospital. But anywhere you go now, you need funds. Sometimes some of the nurses in the hospital (because we know some of them) used to assist and treat her at home. But you cannot ask people to be coming without giving them anything, so we stopped them from coming.”
Upon all these, he lost his younger brother last month. “Only two of us were left out of eight siblings. Six were dead and the seventh person died last month, now I am alone,” he sobbed.
Thoughts of suicide
Nowadays the old man feels suicidal.
“When I think about my retirement benefits, I feel like committing suicide,” he said.
Continuing, he said: “Sometimes, I hear a voice in my head saying: “Why not just commit suicide so that you can end it all and go to rest?” I have heard these thoughts severally, but I always respond that “here on earth, I didn’t gain anything and by committing, suicide I will miss heaven, then I will be one of the greatest losers in life”.”
He petitioned: “During my teaching days, I had two awards, one came from a primary school, the other one from government secondary school. I have served this nation. Throughout my teaching career, I didn’t have a single query. I never went late to the classroom. I wasn’t queried for anything, so why should I be punished like somebody who committed a serious offence?”
All Gyang wanted is his rightful gratuity. “What I want now is for me to get my benefits. If I get it today and die tomorrow, I will be fulfilled. This will let my children know that they had a father who served Nigeria diligently as a teacher.”
He said further: “I retired without a house (gesturing with his fingers), look at this uncompleted building; it was my son who started it in 2011, we cannot even complete it because there is no money. Before now, I have been living in a rented house.”
To the federal government, he directed his appeal: “I am begging the government to give me my retirement benefits. President Muhammadu Buhari is known as a man of integrity and justice. He should, please, give a directive that they should look into my case.”