In this interview with JOYCE REMI- BABAYEJU, Founder of the Dave Omokaro Foundation, DOF, Dr Emem Omakaro advocates a Senior Citizens Bill which will ensure older persons’ human rights are respected and an avenue created for the younger ones to tap from their wealth of experience.
Societies are known to evolve from the older to the present and the next generation. God’s first commandment after human beings were created to run the affairs of the world was procreating to fill the earth.
According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN DESA’s report (2019) on ageing, there are presently 703 million persons aged 65 and this is projected to reach 1.5 billion by 2050, this translates to 1 in 6 people in the world who would be over 65 by 2050.
The UN DESA report shows that the world is inching towards an older population.
Nigeria is not a country with a tradition of keeping accurate data more so on population but the country’s population is estimated to be about 200 million.
So from the UN report, older persons even in our country are increasing as a large segment of our senior citizens are concentrated in the rural and suburban areas.
Dr. Emem Dave Omakaro, Founder of Dave Omakaro Foundation, DOF, an advocate and expert on Ageism in an exclusive interview with DayBreak in Abuja spoke on what the present generation of Nigerians stand to gain from the wealth of experiences of its old population’ if the Senior Citizens Bill is assented and becomes operational.
She said that as an instrument in this direction the Senior Citizens Centre Bill was signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on January 2018. The bill is about the National Policy on Ageing, establishing a body corporate which will be a coordinating agency for every programme on ageing.
“DOF is pushing for that policy to be signed and for the strategic implementation plan to be written and until we have that everything will continue to be haphazard.” She however assured that DOF has integrated the Bill which is awaiting Presidential assent into its programmes of action.
This is because it contains strategic policies and it’s implementations guarantees their basic human rights via strategic plans in the areas of social-economic and health care system and developmental capacity”
According to Omakaro, older persons need to have human rights that would ensure they have a voice. They need basic health care and social protection. We can actually tap from their wealth of experience because without them we cannot be here, they are grandfathers and grandmothers, they made us what we are now.”
Comparing countries like South Africa, Ghana, Malawi, she said that survey carried out has shown that older persons in these countries have guaranteed social protection welfare packages, household packages and monthly stipends that gives them rights and a voice in their societies. So for the care of older persons to be seen as an issue of development, the government has to take charge, there are many things that must be in place and that is where DOF comes in.
She said, “ First there has to be an understanding of ageing by the government through all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs of human resource capacity.
Likewise, there must be the ability of the persons in charge of policies to see the need and to understand the challenge of ageing which must be followed by the right policy
There must be a plan that articulates all that government intends for older persons in these communities. Also, institutions must be in place, ministries set- up, departments assigned, units and dedicated desks that understand issues of ageing to be able to translate them into programmes and activities across budget lines which must be supported by research and data.
Omakaro said in line with this the DOF has been focusing on advocacy and also engaging in capacity building. She pointed out that older persons are exposed to societal challenges and they are vulnerable to stigmatization.
She called on families and persons to stop this by having attitudinal change through moral persuasion and the only way to stop stigmatisation is to ensure that all Human Rights are accorded them.
“This entails recognizing the rights of older persons and to give them their due. For instance in South Africa Older persons are placed on a social development scheme and given stipends monthly, not mixing them up with other households, the Nigerian government can also do this.”
Here in Nigeria, there is so much social discrimination against older persons. In Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, they have social protection for older persons that are not pensionable and the very poor of their societies.
According to the ageism experts, the issue of older persons has moved from traditional family care which has to be the lot of older persons for so many years. Care was the domain of family and the extended family.
Speaking on the health vulnerability of older persons in Nigeria and globally Omakaro said, “In this season of a pandemic, we have conducted a survey on the impact of COVID-19 mitigation and the rights of older persons.”
Covid-19 has had devastating effects on older persons in areas of mortality rate, morbidity, they are seriously decreased because of the effect that is dispassionately affecting older persons more than other people.
“What we found in our Survey of Stakeholders Group on Ageing Africa, SGA Africa is the fact that Covid-19 somehow arrived our shores much later than it did the countries of the European Union or in the Americas. It gently came into Nigeria when data had already been produced to show the devastating effect it had on the older population.”
In Italy, data was already out, to the effect that it counted against the aged and marked life and death. They had to choose who got the ventilator and older persons were really discriminated against. Also, there were high death rates in long term care because older persons were abandoned.
The data about the co-morbidities showed it affected older persons much more.
We were surprised to note that in setting up containment and mitigation strategies in Africa down to Nigeria as well, even when it has to do with pharmaceutical mitigation issues of older persons that should have been paramount, there were no older persons specific enough interventions.
All government did was the lockdown and social distancing which was not favourable to them because they depend on physical relationships with family members and kinsmen. Later distribution of palliatives which never got to most of them in rural communities”.
Omakaro said DOF is collaborating with the government by training personnel across the MDAs.” We have over the years identified ministries and agencies whose statutory mandates is to give social services and we have trained personnel across these ministries. We have gone out to advocate for units to be created for ageing officers we have trained to be assigned to desks.
We have to be able to bring an understanding of intersections on issues of ageing, she said.
We are instrumental that older persons have a voice, the African regional form which is focused on the implementation of SDGs. Before now we had major groups, women, child, farmers, scientists there was no seat for older persons. We have approach UN0C, we organized, we have a very formidable group called older person group in Africa. As a way of promoting ageism across the board. We have now a voice in the UN for the UN Convention, we have a voice in Africa. So far we have already held Africa Regional Conference on Ageing which brought members states here in Abuja in 2009. That was the first Regional High- Level event which brought the president of the 74 sessions. She said.
