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By Ike Willie-Nwobu
If categorisation remains consistent, then Nigeria is by all accounts a senior citizen. Serendipitously, the country’s 66th independence anniversary coincided with the International Day of Older Persons, opening a pivotal window into profound yet poignant and pointed questions about what it means to grow old in Nigeria.
It is surely one of Nigeria’s most open and sorest secrets that Africa’s largest economy and democracy has all but abandoned its older citizens, a negligence that has grown the nettles pricking the country.
Nigeria’s hands may be full with her young, many of whom she doesn’t know what to do with, but turning away from her old people is yielding catastrophic consequences.
These days the news is awash with older Nigerians who are getting involved in all manner of criminal activities. From serving as a courier to drug runners and acting as active drivers of internet fraud, a crucial sheen of morality is ebbing. Recently, an octogenarian made waves in Adamawa for striking a judge with a machete.
A society is in danger when those who should be its sentinels of morality become the degenerates sworn to its destruction.
When older Nigerians who should be the beating heart of rectitude and certitude in Nigeria give themselves over to all manner of vices, the country should be rightly alarmed.
While there can be no justification for crime, Nigeria has long failed its senior citizens. Plainly put, it is a situation where there is a plenitude of legislation but with embarrassingly little to show for it in terms of real fruits.
It Is no real surprise, however. A country that is often found wanting in honouring its commitment to older persons, many of whom have lived and served it all their lives, is certainly not the best country for older individuals.
With a disturbing number of older individuals found on the side of dereliction, what hope is there for Nigeria’s young people, many of whom are already sorely tried by the difficulties of living in a deficient and dysfunctional country? With internet fraud and insecurity on the rampage, it is no exaggeration to say that many of Nigeria’s young people deprived of moral exemplars to look up to are taking the easier path to perdition.
Nigeria cannot afford this increasingly distressing disconnect between the moral visions of its older citizens and younger Nigerians.
This is even more important now that elections are around the corner. At a time of heightened national tension and distress when many older Nigerians who hold political power have failed in office, young Nigerians should be able to find a few compelling examples who have not failed from that generation.
To promptly attend to the monumental task that is the urgent rebuild Nigeria needs, there is every need for accountability and responsibility. Nigeria’s senior citizens should show themselves accountable and responsible so they can pass the baton to younger Nigerians.
This hard, harsh tasks particularly falls on the shoulders of older Nigerians who hold public office. But given the rot they oversee, it is a task that is very likely to be left undone.
• Ike Willie-Nwobu is a social thinker and policy practitioner. He can be reached at [email protected].
