The National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC) says the building of multipurpose senior citizens centres statewide is delayed due to the unavailability of land.

NSCC director-general Emem Omokaro disclosed this in an interview on Sunday in Abuja. She said the construction of the facilities for the elderly was under the ‘One Community One Senior Centre Project’ of the NSCC.

Ms Omokaro said, “We have a partnership with the SDGs office. They want to build 10 centres this year. But what we are looking for is land. So, the condition the SDGs office gave is that we should get them land in any state. They will build and equip them for us.

“So, we are reaching out to the state governors,” she said.

Ms Omokaro, however, said that for any state to benefit from the SDG’s largesse, the Governor must be ready to build and equip another centre in a rural area within the state.

“Our partnership with the SDG’s office is to build one senior citizens centre in the metropolis. While we are doing that,  the state government will now build one in the rural area. What we want is to build one and get one free.”

The NSCC boss also disclosed that she had signed a memorandum of understanding with some private sectors to take the construction of the centres as their public social responsibility.

Ms Omokaro said, “One community, one senior citizen centre is a public-private sector initiative because we don’t have the money to build, but we have the strategy to do it.

“We are already partnering with the private sector, which would build and donate as their corporate social responsibility. So, very soon, Nigerians will see these centres coming up through the different strategies that we are using.”

Speaking on the importance of the centre, Omokaro said it would address the feelings of rejection and loneliness many senior citizens experience in the villages and cities where they reside.

The NSCC boss also mentioned that the centre would provide a functional, secure, and socially active community space for Nigeria’s senior citizens’ physical, social, intellectual, and emotional well-being.

Ms Omokaro said the centres would promote education and counselling programmes, skills acquisition, volunteering opportunities, literacy, arts and leisure.

(NAN)