DANLADI BAKO The National Senior Citizens Centre came into existence through the instrumentality of an Act of the National Assembly signed into law in 2017 with a mandate to cater for the needs of senior citizens in Nigeria – in line with Section 16(2)(d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Pursuant to this mandate, the agency became operational in 2021 with the appointment of Dr Emem Omokaro as its pioneer Director General with oversight by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs as well as the Federal Ministry of Health. The functions include the necessity to “identify the needs, training and opportunities of senior citizens in the country and be responsible for the provision of health, sports, recreational, educational and social facilities for the benefit of senior citizens all over the country.
Other crucial functions include evolving and keeping records as well as a detailed data base of senior citizens across the country and also initiating and developing productive activities and work schemes for their livelihood. Records show that the agency has engaged in skills acquisition programmes in partnership with a few private organizations in the past two years, amongst other activities. However, it was only in the last few weeks that the spectre of public attention beamed on the Centre after the inauguration of a Media Roundtable hosted by the Centre and the subsequent investiture of a glamorous team of cerebral media veterans led by the mercurial, eclectic tel.