NIGERIA RESOURCES - OLD PEOPLE

‘’All these old people no dey hear word, government even suppose create new law wen go make old person dey inside house, if dem dey cross express or beg make police catch them go back to their house’’ I hear as a bus driver angrily shouts at a stunned elderly woman they had just pulled from beneath a car right in front of me.

Ok let’s start at the beginning. If you are familiar with crossing crowd at both sides of Second Rainbow –Mile 2 bus stops in Lagos then you must understand how wild it usually is. This morning I needed to get to CMS so I crossed the express towards the free service lane where I catwalk to the bus park. But, before I could take the last step I heard a screech and few paces away is this elderly woman being pulled from under the same car. Where had she come from so fast? She wasn’t hurt but had to sit out the shock on the dividing pavement.

So, what if there is reason to ensuring elderly people are safe at home and not under car tires as the man suggested. What if there are well revised policies ensuring the aged are properly taken care of instead of begging in traffic around Lagos like we mostly see them do,  What if private/ public organizations alike took more seriously the need to appropriately devise financial and health care solutions to safeguard the future of their presently young and vibrant workforce? It is pathetic when news of pension fund embezzlement and misappropriation fill our airwaves with no action taken at retrieval and redistribution to rightful owners. It is the more reason grandparents still march in protest holding placards requesting payment of retirement savings gathered over a long hard period and swallowed up by one person or agency.

Nigeria as a working system is yet to understand the expansive source of information and wealth of experience that can be claimed from the nation’s aged majority, they are like raw minerals to be carefully exploited for history, culture, tradition, education and lifestyle which can drive a reinvention of the old ways and processes to better serve the deficits of a new and ever growing future.

Like the saying goes the matriarch “elephants never forget’’, with her knowledge of the past and experience of the wild she nurtures, fights, feeds and leads the clan until she withers away. So what if our elders should truly be safely tucked and cared for so we can learn at their feet.