Some Elders in Rivers State have appealed to the government and members of the society for better treatment and respect for older people.
The Elders who spoke in an interview with our correspondent called for an end to abuse, stigmatization, victimization, and neglect.
One of the elders, Rev Godwin Ozichukw, urged people to ensure proper care for the elders among them because they are a blessing and can provide their wealth of knowledge for the good of any society.
”It’s a blessing that God kept the children, the youths, and the Elders. So they should not be regarded as failures in society because they worked hard in their time.”
”We should cherish them and love them and care for them. For the fact that they have become old and won’t be able to do what they were doing when they were young, they should be helped and not stigmatized.”
Another Elder and a pensioner, Mr Ezekiel Daminab, said the Government ought to put in place a social security plan for all elders in Nigeria to avoid neglect, especially for those without family, to prevent over-reliance on family for those with close relatives.
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”At the Elderly Age, you have the challenge of medical attention, you have the challenge of physical maintenance, and you can’t go and work again, so there has to be a proper social security system that can take care of the elderly.”
Those who work in the pensionable services are better because they have some pension provisions to take care of them.
The majority are not captured in the pension scheme, so they are the ones who have a problem with how to be sustained in the later years, and you find out that it also leads to the mortality rate of the elderly, because where they are not maintained, death comes easily.”
The Elders also encouraged agile young men and women to properly plan for old age so they do not become indigent members of society as they grow older.
