News:
November 29, 2019
A member of the Sierra Leone delegation to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Veronica K. Sesay has given indications she is prepare to champion passage of protocol for the elderly in Africa when referred to her country for ratification.
According to the sub-regional community lawmaker, talking about protocols of the human right for the elderly is not a controversial issue, because someday somehow, we would all become old.
“If we take it seriously, I would be the first person to champion it. I do not want to waste time on this, let us take this protocol to our various countries and debate it, it would pass like a wild. Most of us in the ECOWAS Parliament are over fifty, if you do not want to take this protocol to your country to be debated, you are a selfish person”, she lamented in an interview.
She made this remarks in the wake of a two days workshop organized by the Community Parliament and the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria, on the theme, “Human Rights Framework and the situation of elderly people in Africa”.
She further lamented over the practice where elderly persons are dumped without care despite the services they have rendered. “They are just abandoned, simple because that person does not have a son or daughter”.
Again, when it is time for them to take their pensions they go through a lot, they are told to go and come and they need to do verification.
“The elderly whether rich or poor should be given attention, the elderly poor person have found him or herself in that situation because of circumstances, we should get qualified nurses to take care of them at aged homes”, she said
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com/Abuja