Create life-enhancing scheme for the aged, Kwara assembly urges Gov AbdulRazaq
The Kwara State House of Assembly on Tuesday, moved a motion to institutionalize special care for the aged in the state.
The motion was moved by Member representing Ojomu/Balogun Federal Constituency, Hon. Sheun Oguniyi David, and seconded by Hon. Abdullahi Halidu Danbaba, member representing Kaima/Kemaji/Wajibe Federal constituency at the state house during Tuesday plenary.
Leading the debate, Oguniyi expressed concern that “senior citizens are elderly or aged people, especially those who have retired or whose principal source of support is either pension or social security benefits and that those older person and their families face challenges in coping with functional physical and psycho-logical health challenges of the aging process”.
He highlighted that family dynamics, increased demand for medical services, increased economic stress, and decreased functional independence are some of the challenges faced by the senior citizens who are often referred to as the aged in our contemporary societies.
The Honourable also expressed concern that the aged class in the society are, by days, becoming third class citizens through marginalization and social discrimination.
He said, “They have become victims of social hunger and suffer psycho economic deprivations,due to mental weakness and other basic needs which are always not within their disposal.”
He further expressed worries that the elderly are constraints due to their poor health conditions with myriads of ailments such as hearing loss,cataract, diabetes, depression and malnutrition and that the society systematically deprived this category of people from easy access to the fundamentals of good living like financial independence and medical care which, in the long run, further deteriorate to their poor health conditions and gradually send them to their untimely death.
Oguniyi concluded that the life of the aged should be prioritized through registration, establishment of homes and provision of life-saving needs that would guarantee their peaceful exit from this world.
