• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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‘Why government  should  implement  Senior Citizen’s Law’

‘Why government  should  implement  Senior Citizen’s Law’

Atinuke Wuruola Owolabi has demonstrated love and care for the senior citizens and the needy widows in society. Owolabi’s love towards the needy was motivated her to set up ‘Touch Love and Lift Hand Foundation’, an organisation that caters for the needy. Speaking in an interview with Ngozi Okpalakunne in Lagos recently, the engineer-turned care giver delved into challenges facing the aged, needy widows and the girl–child in society.  She also talked about the way forward. Excerpts:

Why the passion for the senior citizens in the country?

I am passionate about the senior citizens in Nigeria because many of them are neglected. It is not like that in   other countries of the world, where there are good and well equipped old peoples’ home.

Here in Nigeria, l don’t think  the government, corporate bodies and well meaning Nigerians are doing enough to alleviate the plight of the aged.

l have an aged woman at home who is over  80 years of age,  sometimes , when l look at her, despite the fact that she had children that are taking good  care of her at  home,  she feels lonely especially when everyone in the house has gone out. l now said that this woman has children that could take care of her at home and she still feels  lonely, what about those who are aged and  do not have people that take care of them.

It was based on that l started thinking of moving around my area to bring together the aged, particularly those who are childless so as to give them sense of belonging and to eliminate loneliness, depression and other diseases associated with old age. So, we stated over three years ago in a two bedroom apartment. It is not residential, but we ran a daily recreational and medical care for them. They come there every morning to check their blood pressure level. If there is need for drug administration, there are medical personnel that will attend to them. After which they will relax and have fun. We also teach skills to those of them that can still do one thing or the other. It has really help to remove loneness and idleness from them.

We want to let them know that they are stakeholders and should be well catered for, l know that l cannot do it alone in my community.  There is need for well meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of  the aged in the society, many of them who retired from government  service may not receive their pension because of the protocol involved  before they die  and these are people who  served  government with their strength only to be abandoned when they need love and care.

Besides, corporate organisations as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility should implement projects that will benefit the aged in the community they operate, such effort will go a long way in reducing the burden of the senior citizens who do not have people that will take care of them.

On the other hand, there is need for the government to implement the Senior Citizen’s Law which was recently passed, they should also improve on the welfare of senior citizens and put them on monthly stipends.

In what ways can one plan so that he does not need to go through much difficulties in taking care of himself during old age?

People should be focused in life. They should work hard while they are young. They should have a saving culture and also invest. One can invest on landed property early because land appreciates. When you invest on land while working, by the time you will retire you would have developed it and can make a living out of it during old age. But the problem is that most people don’t think of the rainy days, when one will not have the strength to work anymore as a result of old age. They lavish their hard earned resources on things that does not matter and when they are old, they cannot take care of themselves and all the challenges associated with old age.

There is also need to marry on time so as to raise children early. Late marriage is not ideal.  Take for instance, when one is involved in late marriage, the children will still be in school when such an individual is already tired, it will be difficult for such a person to train his  children at old age and proper training of children is very crucial. Children who are not well brought up academically, spiritually and socially will ultimately become a problem not only to the parents, but also to the society.  So, parents should spend quality time to bring up their children in God’s way because they will not depart from it. They will grow up to be responsible members of the society who will take adequate care of their aged parents.

Having been working with the needy widows, how would you describe their situation and what do you think is the way forward?

The plight of the needy widows in the society is still deplorable. They are poor, as a result, they cannot take care of themselves let alone giving quality education to their wards. Many of them are being pushed away from their husbands house by the in- laws. To prevent this ugly situation, women should not be idle so that whatever that happens to their husbands in future will not bring untold hardship to them and their children. They should work had so as to support their husbands when they are still alive because some of these deaths occur as a result of too much pressure on the side of the men, but when   men are assisted by their wives  financially, such men may live longer.

What has your organisation done to reduce the number of school age girls who are out of school?

We have embarked on series of awareness programme, where we educate parents particularly mothers on the need to send their female children to school. We also had opportunity of talking to some of the girls especially those hawking on the streets on the reason they should be in school. I think ignorance is one of the greatest hindrances. Some of the young girls in the rural areas do not see the reason to go to school. Their mothers also prefer them to hawk goods for them instead of going to school.  We will soon be in Ekiti because our target is the rural areas.