GOVTS URGED TO EMULATE EKITI ON WELFARE FOR ELDERLY

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
LAGOS-Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, SSAEAC, Tuesday, called on the three tiers of government to emulate the social security scheme for the elderly people in the 16 local government areas of Ekiti State by the government.

President-General of SSAEAC, Mr Bede Opara who spoke in Lagos, said: 'The Ekiti welfare for the senior citizens is detailed as one of the cardinal points in the eight-point agenda of the Governor Kayode Fayemi administration, which other leaders in the country must emulate through the training of the enumerators and their deployment to all the wards in the state.

'It is an indispensable part of institutional tissue of an efficient market economy.'

'In Nigeria, piecemeal social security programmes have been in place since 1942, starting with the workmen's compensation. Others are benefits for temporary and permanent disability, unemployment, maternity and sickness. All these have been going on without a unified policy with no clear funding.'

Opara who emphasised that social security is a human right, as well as an economic and political necessity, however, said: 'According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) social security programmes are defined by the protection which society provides for its members through a series of public measures against the economic and social distress that otherwise would be caused by the stoppage or substantial reduction of earnings resulting from sickness, maternity, employment injury, invalidity and death; the provision of medical care; and the provision of subsidies for families with children'