From Bode Durojaiye, Oyo.
An appeal has gone to the Oyo State Government to evolve some measures of economic security, in collaboration with the 33 local governments, for the aged.
This will not only prevent them from begging for alms, but
eliminate poverty in old age.
This is because since the physical features of the old
generation naturally degenerate and the social coherence of the extended family system is gradually fading, old people are vulnerable and under increasing dangers that require prompt interception.
Freedom Online learnt that the plight of the aged is made prominent in the four local governments (Afijio, Atiba, Oyo East and Oyo West) which constitute Oyo Federal Constituency.
The concern is fuelled by visible evidence of growing destitution and begging on the streets among the older people.
The older people have no access to any formal income security “Poverty Alleviation Programmes” of the four local governments which failed to consider the older people, but rather focusing and young adults of the same political interest.
These older people usually go to the farms or do menial jobs at casssava processing centres.
Having lost vigour and unable to sustain themselves with the little works in both the farms and cassava processing centres, many of them receive insufficient and sometime no support from children and kins, thereby forced to become street beggars.
Recently, a 79-year-old woman, whose name was given as Amope, at Sabo area, was reportedly knocked down by a hit and run commercial motorcyclist, while returning from a cassava processing centre.
Similar incidents happened Akunlemu and Olokomeje areas of Oyo town
The pathetic stories illustrate few out of several older men and women who, in the course of sustaining living, met their untimely deaths or become victims of circumstances.
Equally affected too are pensioners, who continue to feel the
pinch of the neglect, arisen from defective pension and gratuity management which has led to severe delays in the payment of backlog of pensions and terminal benefits.
Commercial banks in the metropolis too, do not help the
situation as the poverty-stricken pensioners, some of who are aged are treated with disdain whenever they besiege the bank to collect their pensions.
No fewer than 10 aged pensioners were reported to have lost
their lives as a result of the appalling circumstances.
Efforts to contact Chairmen of the four local governments were to no avail, as they were said to be “too busy” attending to official matters.
Commenting on the development, in commemoration of the
International Year of the Elderly, spokesman for Federal Pensioners in Oyo and its environs, Pa Adebiyi Odekanyin, lamented that besides the unhealthy treatment received from the banks, the Federal Government is not sincere and thorough about the pension scheme.
“Imagine some of the retirees, including the aged ones, who are yet to receive their backlog of pensions up to last year. We are dying of hunger and the most pathetic is that we cannot go for medical check-ups, due to non-payment of our entitlements.”
Pa Odekanyin, in an emotion-laden tone, further explained that as he was approaching 90 years of age, he occasionally fast because it is difficult to afford three square meals a day.
He lamented: “To what extent can our children go in meeting all our needs, putting into consideration their own matrimonial commitment? Is this the kind of life we deserve after having conscientiously served the nation? Is this a way to appreciate and compensate our unalloyed loyalty and dedication to the country? This is our agony.”
Also speaking, Ipadeola Olaifa, expressed dismay that many aged persons in the constituency “are just waiting for their death and no strength to assist the pains of life. Their bodies are decaying as a result of hardship and neglect”.
