From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
old people in Nigeria are confronted with several challenges, such as health and socio-economic dilemmas.
After spending their active years in service to the fatherland and catering for their families during their prime, at retirement, when they expect to start enjoying the fruits of their labour, most elderly people discover that they are high and dry with little or nothing to fall back on in the twilight of their life.
For those who worked for government, they are often shocked that the pension they should live on does not come at the due time. A lucky few would depend on their children to make life in retirement meaningful, while the unfortunate are sentenced to a life of sorrow and misery.
However, things are about to get better for the elderly in Nigerian society, courtesy of a non-govenmental organisation (NGO), the Dave Omokaro Foundation, which is set to establish an institute that will focus on the challenges of aged persons in the country. To this effect, the governing board and advisory council for the institute, known as the Dave Omokaro Africa Institute on Ageing and Development (DOFRIAD), was inaugurated in Abuja last weekend.
Speaking at the event, the executive director of the foundation, Dr. Emem Omokaro, stated that ageing was inevitable, and there was the need to adequately prepare all stakeholders such as government, civil society, communities and families for the growing number of older persons.
According to her, there are about 8.9 million old people in Nigeria presently and, by 2030, the number would rise to 28.9 million.
Omokaro said the failure to care for the aged was as a result of the absence of institutions and human resources capacity, policy and research gaps.
She said, for any development to be sustainable, the strategy must be integrated and hinged on the fundamental pillars of institution, policy, research and human resources.
“If government does not promote healthy ageing now, if government does not step in now to provide social nets for the vulnerable, ageing will cause poverty and deny children education.
“Issues of ageing do not only affect the old man in the village, they cut across all the age bands; that is why government must face it and tackle it,” she said.
Omokaro noted that the foundation, which focuses on research, capacity building, advocacy, stakeholder engagement on ageing, has identified the challenges and decided to step in to fill the gap, not only in Nigeria but all over Africa.
She said: “Our intention is to establish a first-class institute on ageing that will speak to Africa’s challenges and be a force to reckon with at the global level.”
Former executive secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, said ageing was a big problem in the country as older persons often cry out on national television for support to meet their medical needs.
According to him, people are ageing not because of the number of years they have spent on earth but because of hardship.
Okojie noted that the traditional institution could no longer cope with the challenges of ageing, so, the public sector had to step in.
The former NUC boss stressed the need for support for the vulnerable in the country to keep the hope of the elderly alive.
“We must have a centre where older people can play Ludo and have fun; when they are ill, they need a trained caregiver to engage them mentally.
“In other countries the aged are given drugs for non-communicable diseases, they are given bus pass free but, here, we do not even have very functional transport system,” Okojie said.
On his path, Mr. Habib Abuh, a director in the ministry of foreign affairs, said, until the challenges of older persons are addressed, corruption in the civil service would never end.
“I am retiring as a director and an ambassador after 35 years of work and I am getting less than N20 million for that service.
“As the law stands now, I will get half of that amount now and then the rest will be invested by the pension administrators.
“If the money is being invested, I should get profit, which, if I die after 15 years, my family will not get anything out of it.
“I am calling on the Federal Government and the National Assembly, which is working to change the Act, to look at this issue.
“If government does not do anything about it, then I assure you, corruption in the civil service will never end,” he said.