BY UKET OKA, Calabar
The National Senior_ Citizens Centre (NSCC) has lauded the wife of the President, Senator Remi Tinubu, for her generous inclusion of Senior Citizens in her Renewed Hope Initiative in the country.
Director General of NSCC, Dr Emem Omokaro, made the commendation in a statement made available to Daylight Reporters in Calabar, Cross River State capital, Friday.
The Director General also commended the National Stakeholders Consultative Forums on Ageing; a mechanism of the National Senior citizens Centre for reaching and involving participation of older persons even in hard-to-reach places, who have approached offices of the First Ladies in their respective States and successfully secured slots for older persons from the 250 allocated.
In the statement signed by the Head of Corporate Affairs, Media and Communications of NSCC, Omini Oden, Omokaro said the gesture of the First Lady has confirmed the favourable disposition of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to older persons in Nigeria.
“The act by Her Excellency, Senator Remi Tinubu has accorded Senior Citizens a welcomed sense of inclusion and addressed their right to non-discrimination,” the statement stated.
It added that, “NSCC Director General, assures that the National Senior Citizens Centre has created sector wide partnerships to mainstream older persons into the Social Investment programmes, Health and Social Care and other laudable initiatives including the realization of One Community, One Senior Centre Project.”
Oden however stated that, Omokaro also renewed her appeal to state governments to expedite action towards domestication of the National Senior Citizens Centre Act 2017 and the National Policy on Ageing, stressing that, “the decentralized and inclusive template of the Renewed Hope Initiative template should encourage and boost state and local governments’ efforts to ensure equity and age-specific responses during planning, budgeting and implementation of health and social services to meet the needs of different population categories without leaving older persons behind.”
It assured that, “the National Senior Citizens Centre will continue to create awareness of its robust and sustainable Older-Persons-Centered and community-oriented programmes and services towards achieving a dignified, healthy, happy and secured geriatric population and welcomes states, local governments and private sector partnerships in their adoption and replication across the country.”