Anambra introduces welfare scheme for senior citizens

Governor Peter Obi, Tuesday, distributed cheques of over NI billion to about 30,000 elders above 75 years under a Social Security Scheme for Anambra elders who do not have children or others to help them and are not pensioners.

Unveiling the programme yesterday at the Women Development Centre, he disclosed that it was pursuant to the Anambra State Indigent Relief Law that was passed in June and signed in July, adding that the initial N1 billion made available for the project covered from July to December 2013.

He said: 'Today, we launch the welfare scheme for senior citizens of Anambra. We commence the implementation from today… to pay N5,000 monthly stipend to each elderly person from July 1, 2013 to December 2013. They are 30,000 persons across the 177 communities, totaling N1 billion.'

However, he maintained that the aim was not to encumber whoever succeeds him but that as his government is hinged on proper planning, necessary measures have been put in place to enable his successor to take off on a sound footing.

Giving example with the buses he will provide to all the schools by the end of the year, he said his successor would not have to think about that in the next four years. The same, according to him, goes for computers and Internet subscription for two years, which will not encumber the in-coming governor.

Coordinator of the project and Special Adviser to the Governor on Social Works, Mrs. Tonia Tabansi Okoye, said the event was first of its kind in Nigeria and encapsulated the Igbo people's credo of being one's brother's keeper. She said that those being assisted were those that did not have children and other people to care for them.

She warned against abuse of the project, citing the law setting it up such as Section 7 that prescribed N50,000 fine and/or six years imprisonment for defaulters, including those who claim to be over 75 years and those supplying false information.

Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Chukwuemeka Ike, said the decision to embark on a revolutionary assistance to the elderly not only showed the governor as a good father, but also a visionary. He appealed to those in charge of the project to have the fear of God and humbling spirit to render service to the elderly without let or hindrance.