By Major (Retired) Ishmail Pamsm-Conteh
The Commander-in-Chief of the Republic of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF), His Excellency the President, Brigadier (Retired) Julius Maada Bio, on Thursday 18 June, retired senior military officers. The reasons were due to the officers attaining the retirement age of 55 years, or on health grounds. This is justified under sections 26 and 27 of the Army Orders of 1965.
To be fair some of the officers ( though not all) were well aware of their retirement because of their Run-Out-Dates (ROD) to put it in military lingo. This is the date on which one is expected to retire.
The ROD is calculated by taking into consideration the service personnel’s date of birthday and the time they reach the retirement age of 55. The information is no secret as it could be found in their personal file, which they have access to. Besides they knew the age they had declared as their birthdates when they were commissioned as officers.
But for some of the officers their retirement came rather too soon, in the form of an EARLY retirement, (not my words).
That said, some flexibility could be allowed by extending their service beyond their RODs to make use of talent that would otherwise affect staffing or the manning of key roles or appointments.
Certainly, one has to feel for those who have been retired. Not least because, for some, military life is all they have ever known and when one considers the lack of job opportunities in our country, it may mean some would never hold a paid job ever again. It is scary to look beyond retirement giving these circumstances, knowing that they would now be relying on their monthly pension as a source of income for the rest of their lives. A pension that can hardly be called attractive. I am sure there is still some fuel in their tanks to do something meaningful, something useful, and something gainful. But how realistic is that prospect?
That said, it is worth mentioning that the retirement age in our country, for civil servants is 60 years. And university lecturers can also retire at the same age but can continue in the jobs up to 65 years – if they don’t undertake any staff responsibilities.
The reason for the pensionable 55 years age in the Sierra Leone armed forces is not clear. One can only assume that it is because our military structure is formatted along that of the British forces, where personnel previously also had their retirement age at 55 years. This has now changed, as they are able to stay up to the age of 60 unless they choose to leave earlier – if they have served for up to 20 years and have reached the age of 40 they can leave. This system – known as the 20/40 point – still entitles them to an income from the pension scheme. In other words, they are allowed to serve up to when they are 60 years.
Some others may want to ascribe the age retirement to the active and rigorous nature of military life. The assumption is that because of that rigour, by the time the person reaches age 55 they would have slowed down in terms of sharpness of the mind, and their physical form would also have deteriorated. Whilst this reason may be appealing to many, as a former military officer myself – with 19 years of service – I find it hard to be convinced. This is for the simple reason that it is scientifically proven that an active life contributes to longevity, a more fulfilled life, as well as a better and healthier life. So, if military life is one that is so described, it can be argued that an average military person of such an age should be fitter than their civilian counterpart, in normal circumstances.
Still some would content that Sierra Leone’s life expectancy could be the reason. According to the United Nations Projections, that life expectancy for 2020 is projected at 54.81 years – a 0.68% increase from 2019. But when the retirement age of other Sierra Leonean government employees such as civil servants, university lecturers and judges are taken into consideration this argument does not look very strong.
I would consider some examples of the retirement ages of military personnel within the West Africa sub-region to make the case that the current retirement age is depriving the Sierra Leone Military of much-needed experience, and it is grossly unfair.
Ghana’s Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General OB Akwa is due for retirement this June at the age of 65 years, which is the mandatory retirement age for Ghanaian officers. His retirement has now been extended to the end of January 2021.
In Nigeria, initially their military officers were supposed to retire when they turned fifty-two (52). This was much earlier than many other public service workers in the country. Now, the official retirement age for the military officers there has been reviewed and the retirement age for them has been increased to sixty-two (62).
If one considers the life expectancy of Nigeria, the National Population Commission gives an overall life expectancy of 52.2 years, which is lower than ours. So that further strengthens the argument that life expectancy should not be a factor.
In The Gambia, the retirement age of the military is 60 years, in line with other civil servants, according to the Gambian Pensions Act 1950. So too is Liberia, according to the 2017 Social Security Law.
One of the effects of such an early retirement which cannot be blamed on anybody is that, if the matter is not looked into, valuable experience from these officers who fought in the civil war would be lost sooner rather than later.
Our history cannot be completely written or narrated without mentioning that unfortunate chapter, which lasted between 1991 and 2002. The Armed Forces were responsible for fighting the war and those officers and soldiers who fought in it are slowly giving way because of the retirement age.
In the absence of a written military history it is their practical experience that is relied upon when military operations are being planned and conducted, now or in the future. This may be the reason why Sierra Leone’s peacekeeping troops have suffered very minimal causalities during their tours of duty in the various peace keeping missions they have been engaged in. They are battle-tested.
One is not arguing that such fine members of the Armed forces should remain in service forever. However, it may now be worthwhile as a matter of urgency, to begin to document key military operations and battles from the memories and experience of those who served, by which those who did not fight in the war would learn lessons from; if that is not already being done.
As already argued, 55 years is still a relatively young age to retire. And we need to bring our retirement age close to of not in tandem with other countries – at least those in the sub-region. It is time to bring our Armed Forces’ retirement age to 60 years in line with our civil service, if not to 65 years as in Ghana, or 62 as in Nigeria?
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