ARISE SENIOR CITIZENS CENTRE: GOVERNOR ENO’S TRIBUTE TO GRACEFUL GREYING

ARISE SENIOR CITIZENS CENTRE: GOVERNOR ENO’S TRIBUTE TO GRACEFUL GREYING

– Samuel Ayara

“I never believed a time like this would come in our State, when concerns of old citizens are prioritized” – Madam Grace Edem

Ageing in its glory is a phenomenon humans crave, but hardly prepare for. Its gracefulness regardless, nothing equips the mind for the loss of independence that often leads to social isolation; increased vulnerability, safety risks, depression and dementia, which have been identified as conditions the grey population brave, especially in economically unstable climes.

Apart from targeted medical support through health insurance schemes, and economic boosters that include terminal benefits and pensions for retired civil servants, there has not, until the emergence of President Bola Tinubu, been so much of intentional efforts designed to allay the anxieties of transitioning into the geriatric age range.

While most of the social intervention programmes of successive administrations revolved round enhancing livelihood for women and other gender issues, the 2023 launch of the Renewed Hope Initiative Elderly Support Scheme, pet project of Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, in reach and impact has been adjudged phenomenal.

It was the launch of the scheme in Akwa Ibom State that admitted geriatric care as a critical caste of Governor Umo Eno’s administration, when he promised to match the number of beneficiaries in the Direct Cash Transfer programme to elderly citizens by the nation’s First Lady.

Once could have been enough, but the Governor’s characteristically compassionate poise, has seen not less than 600 senior citizens across the state monthly benefitting from the elderly care programme of the State government dubbed the ‘ARISE Initiative for the Elderly”.

To date, this scheme has so far reached over 15000 citizens who are sixty years and above.

As if domesticating the Mother of the nation’s gesture to the elderly as one of the ARISE Agenda’s geriatric thrust was not enough, Governor Umo Eno dared to deepen inclusion for the elderly by yielding to the vision of the state’s First Lady Pastor Patience Umo Eno, to build a senior citizens centre.

Novel and Uncharted.

What was first discussed as an idea has become an innovation that is positioned to redefine the living realities of senior citizens, as the ARISE Senior Citizens Centre is ready to switch a fired-up experience on a demographic hitherto plagued by loneliness, vulnerability, and boredom.

Curated with love and thoughtful precision, the centre, which sits pretty on the Medical Corridor, along Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road, stands as a link that would not only reconnect old friends, but ignite the grace of longevity through the warmth, support and ambience its targeted publics would be walking into.

This first of the expected three senior citizens centre planned to cover the three senatorial districts, opens with a Primary Health Care Clinic, Laboratory, and Pharmacy, with medical personnel to provide round the clock care to citizens, who would be thronging the facility.

There is a mini mart, lounge, library, orchard, games room, gymnasium, kitchen and dining area carefully aligned to help them imbibe a lifestyle that guarantees the rest they truly deserve, having served humanity for the better of their lives.

A chapel and counselling unit is also on the list of appurtenances to provide the needed spiritual and emotional balance that would keep them in constant remembrance of their wins and conquests, while blacking out on limitations and regrets.

A Game Changer.

Governor Eno’s commitment to providing them an experience that makes their post-labour days less painful and tiresome, beyond his compassionate mien, is a giant-size ambition that aligns with the National Policy on Ageing for Older Persons in Nigeria, ratified in February 2021, to ensure the dignity, health and well-being of citizens above the sexagenarian mark.

A snug fit for the United Nations’ International Plan of Action for Ageing, which encourages governments to scale-up independence, participation, care, self-fulfillment and dignity for elderly persons, the ARISE Senior Citizens Centre, like Nigeria’s old anthem encouraged, “the labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain”, premiers as haven for improved care, welfare, and social inclusion.

Manifestly an unexplored vista in Nigeria’s social welfare turf, this centre beyond comfort will shield elderly citizens from abuse, harmful cultural practices and dogmas that have growingly exposed them to untoward treatments and sometimes avoidable deaths.

While it is not uncommon to find senior citizens abandoned by relatives who cannot properly manage them, due to the need to keep-up with the growing demands of the stretchy national economy, this new deal avails flexible and effective management options that would eliminate vexatious exhaustion, elevating emotional support in its wake.

Caring for those that once cared for others is significant and instructive in more ways than few. It provides fitting buffers for society’s declining values of compassion, humanity and hospitality. More than a space kindness is expressed, ideas and knowledge would be cross fertilized to bridge the dearth of experience and history that have become our lot.

From paying down the N111 billion debt owed as gratuities and pension arrears since 2012, by N80 billion, with a commitment to clean out the slate, to instituting a viable pensions regime, in addition to free medicare for citizens 60 years and above, there may be no better time to magnify purpose and vision as leadership principles than now, as Governor Eno continues to align governance priorities to serve the needs of a duplicitous population.

Going beyond the fascia in probing elderly care initiatives under the current administration, reveals carefully woven and delivered strategies that have revolutionized geriatric experience, and created workable templates that could help slowdown extinction for our preceding generation.

As the mother of the nation opens the doors to admit our senior citizens into the ARISE Senior Citizens Centre, it can be indubitably affirmed that ‘grey’ in Governor Eno’s Akwa Ibom has become a trans-generational blessing.

Samuel Ayara writes from Ibong Otoro in Abak LGA.