The Senate Committee on Special Duties has expressed disaffection over poor funding of the agency meant to take care of the aged, National Senior Citizens Centre.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Shehu Lawan Kaka consequently expressed the readiness of the Senate to ensure adequate funding of the Centre.
Kaka made the disclosure on Monday when the Director General of the National Senior Citizens Centre, Emem Omokaro, defended the agency’s 2023 budget before the committee.
He said the Senate was determined to initiate the process of amending the Act which established the National Senior Citizens Centre to enhance its efficiency.
He said the proposed amendments would seek recognition for the senior citizens in the constitution and mandate public and private sector players to contribute to their wellbeing apart from government arrangements for them.
He maintained that the aged deserved special attention in the area of healthcare and social security.
The DG of the Centre told the Committee the plans of her agency but lamented that it was not being adequately funded.
She specifically lamented that the health insurance scheme and the issuance of multi-purpose social security identity cards which would enable them to access facilities at very reduced prices had yet to take off.
“We have started a plan that would engage about 1,150 retired professionals and technocrats who are technocrats, we need funds to facilitate its take off.
“We are doing this in partnership with some federal government agencies, foreign and local nongovernmental organizations and private firms.
“They will use their professional expertise to provide skills to the young generations at the various skills acquisition centres we are planning across the country.
“We are building an inclusive society where anybody would not be able to look down on our senior citizens.
“This will make the working population to be joyful that once they retire there is an oasis waiting for them.
“It is called community development/ empowerment
“Our major challenge is that policymakers look down on issues affecting the senior citizens. They see it as a waste of time and money.
“For instance, we developed 11 international standard projects, four of them were dropped.
“Our budget for capital projects is the lowest. In the 2022 budget, our capital vote was N300m out of the N2.5bn that we proposed.
“It has been reduced to N250m in the 2023 budget. We have written, advocated and begged, all to no avail.
“We are supposed to build seven model senior citizens centres across the six geopolitical zones and Abuja that we have already developed their standard operational model.
“Nobody is listening to us. If we get the required funding, we will take care of the aged person especially when 70 per cent of them live in the rural areas.”
Investigation revealed that the agency was set up in 2017 to cater for the needs of senior citizens; and for related matters in line with section 16. (2) (d) of the 1999 Constitution.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then