Betta Edu lauds Tinubu for prioritising senior citizens’ rights

Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu has reiterated President Bola Tinubu’s determination to accord dignity to senior citizens by giving them a new lease of life in line with the Renewed Hope agenda.

Speaking at the National Senior Citizen Centre (NSCC) maiden Programme and Services Fair in Abuja, the Minister said Seniors Citizens are adequately factored in all the Renewed Hope Agenda of the current administration.

According to her, “the Federal Government is mainstreaming Older Persons into social protection programs, Health and Social Care; building senior centres to promote social connections and care among older persons, encouraging recreation and intergenerational cross learning.”

The Minister disclosed that the Ministry was working in tandem with its mandate to support NSCC to evolve Multi-purpose Cooperatives to cascade the indigenous ventures and auxiliary productive activities of Older Persons within communities to expand the inclusion of more numbers and ensure access to micro-loan schemes and markets.

“The Ministry is also working in the area of its mandate to ensure older persons receive social support, peculiar to their age-specific challenges – notably the mitigation of absolute poverty among very poor and vulnerable older persons through the Grant for senior citizens. Dr. Edu added.

In his remarks, Chairman, House Committee on Disability Matters, Hon. Bashiru Dawodu applauded the Centre’s initiative to set aside a day for the viewing of its programs and services, which, he said, it has not only developed through processes and mechanisms that enable older persons and stakeholders’ participation in the conduct of national needs assessments but also in the program conceptualization, designs and the evaluation phases.

“I believe this fair will promote positive attitudes about aging and older persons, and encourage increasing policy shift towards equity and more inclusion of older people in all sector programmes.

“Private sector needs to come into the space to support the various initiatives,” the lawmaker maintained.

On her part, NSCC Director General, Emem Omokaro stated that one of the priority areas of the center was to identify the needs of older persons and to cater to them.

“The National Senior Citizens Center is committed to improving the well-being of older persons across the nation,” she added.

Omokaro said the Centre is also to make the human rights and business as well as economic growth case for equity and inclusion of older persons in sustainable development through the Centre’s exhibitions.

The Director General however, lamented that Older Persons experience discrimination in social protection systems and humanitarian emergency mechanisms which manifest respectively in inadequate pension benefits, lack of access to affordable healthcare, limited social assistance, and right assistance and support for those in need.

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