NGO urges establishment of homes for the aged to stem street begging

U3A Nigeria, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) has urged the Federal Government to establish homes for the aged to reduce the rate at which some of them beg on the streets.

Dr Charles Afolabi, the Executive Director of U3A Nigeria made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Thursday.

He said that the abandonment and rejection of old persons by their children and families had made some of them to beg on the streets of Ibadan.

“If you visit major bus garages in major cities in Ibadan, you will see many old men and women begging.

“This situation is on the increase in Ibadan and I urge the administration of Governor Ajimobi to look into this issue as a matter of urgency.

“The mostly hit among this category of senior citizens are women, and this should be a great concern to many stakeholders.

“In the past, the few old Peoples’ Homes we had were created by the missionaries, there is one in Idi-Ikan, Ibadan, and there is nothing to write home about it.

“I charge all the three tiers of government, churches, Mosques and Philanthropists to heed this clarion call and do the needful by taking care of our indigent senior citizens,” he said.

According to Afolabi, street begging is a form of abuse, as the aged come from a home and have families, they have children and wards that have roles to play in caring for them, but have failed them.

He said that in some cases, most of the elders were retired civil servants whose pensions had not been paid for long, and due to neglect by their children decided to beg on the streets.

Afolabi said that governments were focusing only on youth development and empowerment to the detriment of the aged.

“The governments don’t see that there is looming crises as regards the aged in Nigeria. They focus more on youths who abuse their positions and when caught up by the law, they look up to their aged parents for solution.

“Five per cent of Nigeria’s population is the retired aged, whose productivity have dwindled due to old age; government should take more proactive measures now to tackle welfare challenges of the aged.

“There is also the need for government to create policies to empower the aged through vocations and try to merge the youth with the aged.

“This is called Inter-generational Cooperation, when you have programmes created where both the youth and aged can work together.’’

According to him, this will breach the gap between the aged and the youth and both groups can learn skills from each other.

Afolabi attributed some old traditional beliefs as responsible for some aged people being abandoned by their children and families.

He also attributed the reason why some aged persons beg on the streets to poverty, ignorance, and corruption, lack of political will and nonchalant attitude of government to the plight of these people.

The director also urged government at all levels to establish “Old People’s Village’’ like the one in Atlanta, Georgia, USA with recreational facilities and vocational trainings.

“Most of these aged are not sick, but only hungry. They also lack access to medical care, so they resort to begging on the streets and garages.

“Government should make provisions for them. As government is trying to empower the youth, it should do same for the aged through welfare packages or stipends for feeding.’’

Afolabi called on more NGOs to rise up and do more to assist this group of people.