INTRODUCTION :
Nigeria, a country of over 234 million population and abundant mineral resources is unfortunately still grappling with underdevelopment. One of the greatest expectations of any developing nation is the provision of good affordable health care for its citizens, and social welfare services for the poor, the elderly and the vulnerable. Regrettably, standard health care is beyond the reach of the average Nigerian citizen and social welfare services for the poor are practically non-existent. The poor who are still young and strong struggle day by day to eke out a living for themselves. For the elderly poor, the situation is quite pitiable and needs attention.
BASIC NEEDS
- FEEDING
Meeting their basic needs is a huge challenge. Most of the elderly in Nigeria live in the villages. Some have lived there all their lives farming or doing other little jobs for a livelihood. Others who had lived in cities, retire to the villages because they can no longer afford life in the city. For majority of these elderly ones, basic food is not easy to come by. They are no longer very productive. Most of their children have migrated to cities to make a living for themselves. With the economic situation in the country, their children in the city can hardly feed their own families let alone take care of their elderly parents in the villages. The result is that a good number of these elderly poor are malnourished. Even within the cities, there are many elderly ones who find it difficult to feed. The retired civil servants are often owed their pension. Even when this pension is paid, it is so meagre that it can hardly sustain them. Many die unnecessarily from malnourishment.
- HEALTH CARE
The elderly need frequent medical attention to take care of age related ailments, and this should be within their reach and affordable. There are a few primary health care institutions scattered in various localities but they are grossly insufficient. Many villages are several kilometres away from the nearest health facility. How does an eighty year old man get to a hospital five kilometres away? The transportation system in most Nigerian villages is very poor, so majority of these elderly ones cannot access the health care facilities. Furthermore, these available health centres most of the time, lack personnel because of the acute migration of medical professionals from Nigeria. Drugs are expensive and often beyond the reach of the poor. Health insurance policies are not available for majority of Nigerians, so these elderly poor cannot really access medical treatment.
- NURSING CARE
As one grows older, a time comes when he can no longer take care of himself and needs nursing care. This can be provided by family members or in a specialised institution for the elderly. Many of the elderly poor in Nigeria have no one to take care of them. As their children have left to seek their own means of survival, they are no longer available to take care of their elderly parents. There are very few nursing homes for the elderly, mostly run by churches and non-governmental organisations. However, that is for the few who can afford it, certainly not for the poor.
HOW DO THEY SURVIVE?
The extended family system, and the communal living in Africa have been the means of survival for these elderly poor. They enjoy some charity from their more comfortable relatives who visit from the city from time to time. Children of neighbours sometimes do chores like sweeping and fetching water from the stream for the elderly poor.
For health care, they often rely on local chemists, for those who can afford it, to “mix drugs” for them for various ailments. This means that the drug seller, who is not a trained medical personnel prescribes and sells drugs to them when they are sick. The dosage is usually according to what the sick can afford. Majority resort to herbs and local remedies. We all know that these herbs are not properly processed, and their dosage and side effects are not always known. A lot of these elderly poor die of diseases that could have easily been treated if they had good medical attention.
A PITIABLE SITUATION
The situation of the elderly poor in Nigeria is indeed very bad and calls for serious attention. Here are a few true life examples:
Aunty Nwanne, a retired primary school teacher living the village went to a nearby hospital for treatment. After running some tests, the doctor told her she would need about N40, 000 for her treatment. With her meagre and irregular pension, Aunty Nwanne felt she could not afford the treatment, having already spent a lot of money on the medical tests. She stayed home and took care of herself as much as she could. Unfortunately, within a few weeks she died. A health insurance policy could have saved that life.
Mama Emma was an elderly widow who had lost all her children. She was too old to go to the farm, so she had no means of income. A few of her kind neighbours gave her food from time to time. I wonder if anyone cared to give her a bath. She had no one to give her medical care. She certainly did not live long under that condition.
Andrew, an elderly man who had done business in the city when he was younger had retired to the village. He was suffering from dementia and lived with his son and his family. One day when everyone had gone out for their businesses, Andrew strayed to the farm, and got lost in the bush. The family found him in a very poor condition after two or three days in the bush. With little medical care, he did not survive the episode for long. Andrew could have lived longer if the family could afford good nursing care.
May, a retired civil servant who lives in the city would often complain about the delay in receiving her pension, and the fact that she would have spent most of it buying foodstuff on credit before the pension comes. She often resorts to begging neighbours for foodstuff to survive. This is demeaning for one who had spent her active years in government service.
A CALL TO THE GOVERNMENT
The government should arise and help these poor elderly citizens.
- The social Welfare units in the Local Government Areas should be empowered to identify the elderly poor within their locality, and periodically provide foodstuff to support them.
- Mobile health care clinics should be provided to visit the remote villages on a weekly basis to provide free healthcare and drugs for the elderly.
- Health insurance schemes should be set up to take care of the elderly.
- Institutions should be created where the poor elderly ones can move into for nursing care when they can no longer take care of themselves.