NUP advocates free medical care for aged

THE Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has appealed to the Federal Government to provide free medical care and services for Nigerians of 60 years and above.

The Union has also called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to prevail on state governors to pay backlog of pension arrears owed to retirees in their states.

Deputy General  Secretary of NUP, Chief Joseph Adeniyi Okuade, made the call  in Abuja at one-day summit on ageing organised by the I-Care Initiative for the Aged, a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

The call came as a retired Federal Permanent Secretary from Ministry of Education, Dr MacJohn Nwaobiala, expressed concern that Nigeria’s older adults would increase from about 6.98 million in 2006 to 9.74 million by 2020, with its attendant challenges.

Okuade, who painted a gloomy picture of some retirees in some states of the Federation, said many of them were owed for more than one year while others have been owed several months of pension and other entitlements.

He threatened that if nothing was done to address the plight of the pensioners, especially in the states, the Union would mobilise its members against governors of the affected states.

Meanwhile, a former Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. MacJohn Nwaobiala, in his keynote address at the occasion lamented that Nigeria had paid little attention not only to the plight of the aged but also towards taking advantage of what they could offer to the society.

He said that there was urgent need for institutionalisation of policies, programmes, projects as well as legislation that cater for the needs and welfare of the elderly persons, including promotion and protection of their rights.

Executive Director of I-Care Initiative for the Aged, Mrs Chinyere Ezeh, in her welcome address, said the summit was organised to raise consciousness on the plight of older persons and the need for proactive policy in the tackling the challenges.

She noted that the gap in older persons’ protection breaches and jeopardises the future of today’s youth who would be part of the largest population of older persons in time to come according to the recent statistics.