Review of the National Senior Citizens Centre Act of 2018

Abstract

This paper reviewed the National Senior Citizens Act of 2018. Under t his Act, the National Senior Citizens Centre was established to cater for the needs of senior citizens in Nigeria. The Act aims to facilitate the implementation of Section 16 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) 1999 (as amended) which declares that Nigeria shall direct its policy towards ensuring the care of aged persons. The objective of this review is to identify some of the challenges that hinder the implementation of the Act. Using the doctrinal method, it is argued that the Act does not make adequate provision on how to cater to the need of the senior citizens, to provide adequate health and social services. It is also noted that the act  fixed the Senior Citizens' Aged at 70 without regard to the retirement age, pension rights and their financial status. The paper compared the Act with policy or legislation of India, Ghana, South Africa and Brazil with the view of learning some lessons from their frameworks. Some of the lessons include the provision of clear implementation guidelines similar to Ghana, in India, a senior citizen is a person
who is 60 years and above. The paper finds a myriad of challenges affecting the implementation of the Act which include funding and lack of clear implementation plan. The paper recommends, amongst others, that there should be more funding and clear provision for the nature of the healthcare services to be enjoyed by the senior citizens