Director-General of the National Senior Citizens Centre, Dr Emen Omokaro, has said advocacy is the key to strengthening network support for the welfare and wellbeing of senior citizens in the country.

Ms Omokaro made this known when she received members of the Urhobo Leadership Forum led by their President, Peter Igho, in Abuja on Wednesday.

She said that the centre needed the support of stakeholders to continue engagement towards advancing the course of senior citizens, especially as it relates to the protection of their rights and privileges.

She said, “We need to partner with stakeholders, when you talk about partnership, we should be asking you for partnership because the population of older persons is growing, so we need to build this engagement mechanism. We need to have a wider coverage of people knowing what we do and to improve in our operations because our approach is to make our work intergenerational. The institutional memory you have, the experience you have, we need it to impact on other generation of Nigerians.’’

She expressed readiness to partners with the forum towards providing the necessary support to senior citizens in the country.

The DG commended the media for their roles in advocacy efforts towards ensuring visibility of NSCC programmes.

She also thanked former President Muhammadu Buhari for establishing the centre to cater for older persons across the federation.

Earlier, Mr Igho told the gathering that they were in NSCC to solicit partnership with the National Senior Citizens Centre to promote and protect the rights of older persons through advocacy.

The Urhobo leader also said that the forum sought the need to collaborate with the centre to provide their support in addressing the needs of older people, especially through advocacy efforts.

According to him, while the population of older persons keeps growing, there is an urgent need for stakeholders to get involved and support the centre towards improving the quality of lives of older persons in the country.

Mr Igho expressed confidence that the partnership would yield the desired results.

(NAN)