Aging in Nigeria: Current and Future Policy Issues in Caring for the Elderly

The article examines the current and future policy issues relating to the elderly in Nigeria. Current issues identified are the marginalization of the rural elderly, the inadequacies of the provisions and administration of the retirement policy, and the increase in the number of urban elderly destitutes. The expected increase in life expectancy, the concomitant increase in the number and proportion of the old old, and the diminished capacity of the extended family system in caring for the aged suggest the need for an old age policy that ensures economic well-being for the elderly and provides the sociomedical and community support services needed for their welfare. Research and policy interest in the issue of aging in Nigeria is of comparatively recent origin. A number of factors are responsible for this seemingly late interest in old people. First, until very recently very few people lived to old age. For example, until 1960 life expectancy at birth was 40.5 years and only 3.9 % of the population was 60 years and older (United Nations, 1984). Those who managed to live to old age were the &dquo;medical elites&dquo; (Linn & Linn, 1980) who survived despite all the odds in an environment little tamed by man or technology. Second, in many pre-Western Nigerian societies, the socioeconomic and emotional needs of the few aged were adequately met through a series of reciprocal, informal social support networks having as their nexus the extended family system extant in most of these societies (Fadipe, 1970; Faniran-Odekunle, 1978; Togonu-Bickersteth, 1986). Thus, given the demo-graphic structure of a very youthful population and the cohesiveness of the extended family system, care of the elderly was not considered a public issue