Sen. Eze Ajoku, President, Coalition of Societies for the Rights of Older Persons in Nigeria (COSROPIN) on Wednesday said older persons deserved better treatment as a deal in the new year.
Ajoku told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that a better life for senior citizens from government in 2020 was imperative.
He restated the determination of COSROPIN to partner with state governments to ensure that programmes designed to benefit older persons succeeded.
The COSROPIN boss who called for palliatives for older persons commended the Lagos state governor, Sanwo-Olu for his planned free bus scheme and other incentives for older persons.
He described the development as laudable and called on other states of the federation to same for older persons.
“I commend Sanwo-Olu for his planned introduction of free bus plan for older Lagosians. Gov. Fayemi in his first term paid monthly allowances to older persons in Ekiti.
“The introduction of the planned monthly allowances to older Lagosians should be adopted by all states,” Ajoku said.
According to him, such older persons included former civil servants, farmers, factory workers, parliamentarians, politicians, armed forces and many others helped to build our nation and deserved a better deal.
Ajoku explained that some of the governors, ministers and policy makers had older persons as either fathers or mothers, urging them to create programmes that would take care of older persons.
He, however, expressed optimism in the speedy passage of Older Persons Rights and Privileges bill and called on International Organisations like World bank, WHO, UNDP, UNICEF to device policies and programmes for care of older persons in Nigeria