The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday turned attention to the peculiar challenges of the elderly people, equipping its staff with the needed skills to protect them.
Speaking at the event which took place at the NHRC’s headquaters in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Tony Ojukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said the training aimed to enhance staff’s capacity to recognise and addresse violence caused by elder abuse.
He said the training also sought to strengthen advocacy skills for effective engagement with the government agencies, civil society and communities and promote a rights-based approach in all interventions concerning older persons.
The president of the Coalition of Societies for the Rights of Older Persons in Nigeria (COSROPIN), Eze Ajoku, who was among the resource persons at the training, said the challenges of older persons in Nigeria stem from systemic issues rather than old age itself.
Mr Ajoku, a former Nigerian senator, who represented Imo East Senatorial District in 2005, said, “Over the years, I’ve come to realise something very painful. Many older persons in Nigeria suffer, not because they are old.”
