THE FEAR OF GROWING OLD: LESSONS FROM NIGERIA
No Thumbnail Available
Files
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ife Centre for Psychological Studies
Abstract
Description
Today, in most developed countries, issues relating to aging and
the elderly have continued to command the attention of policy
makers. This unfortunately cannot be said for most African Nations
like Nigeria which have to grapple with such crucial problems as
inflation rates, unemployment, hunger, poverty, insecurity etc. Yet,
the population of the elderly is increasing just as the level of
hopelessness and misery has gotten to its peak. One can therefore
only imagine the consequences of the massive i11crease in the elderly
population, especially as they steadily retire from the labour force.
This therefore calls for adequate social resources and programmes
to help ameliorate the sufferings of the elderly and provide adequate
care for them. With unfavourable policies and programmes of
government in different sectors of the economy, most workers are
made to retire prematurely from service and consequently age
quickly due to the Level of neglect experienced by Pensioners who
hardly receive their gratuity and pension before they are dead.
This has created a lot of destitute amongst the very old in society.
Government has not been able to do much with regards to processes
of resettlement and rehabilitation of the elderly, especially since
most families due to high levels of poverty cannot do much for their
old ones. Based on these problems, this paper sets out to examine
the fear of growing old and how people should prepare for old age
and what the future holds for the aged in Nigeria, most especially
the role of the government, private organisations and the families
concerned
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), HM Sociology