Role of Elderly people in the Era of HIV/AIDS in Africa

Views of Nigerian Youths on Ageing Parents

By: Daad Fouad
From: The Institute of Statistical Studies & Research, Cairo University. 2005

This study explores how Nigerian youths feel about care-giving for the elderly and the difference between feelings and action, considering that they will have the responsibility of taking care of the elderly in the future either as family members or as policy makers.

Caring of the elderly has always been taken for granted to be filial responsibility with little or no government support in Nigeria. However current social and economic changes have put into doubt the continued viability of such traditional arrangements for the elderly. Results from a study group of youths show that:

• The majority of the study respondents are of the view that it is their special responsibility to care for their parents
• However, the majority would not want to live in the same house with their parents and grandparents. Rather they would prefer to live far away from them and visit them occasionally
• A good number of the respondents share the view that anyone who cannot take care of his/her parents is irresponsible
• Also, many respondents do not support the idea that married sons should send their wives to live with their parents while slightly more than half do not support that children should live with their grand parents
• On the issue of whether an elderly person can outlive his or her usefulness, many are of the view that an elderly person can outlive his or her usefulness

Findings imply that elderly parents in Nigeria may face abandonment since their children do not want them to live with them. Elderly parents may find themselves at a cross roads, where they are left in their own homes with nobody to assist them in their daily activities.

The author concludes that these findings have clear implications for policy and future research. For example there is the need for the introduction of gerontological education and intergenerational programmes in the school system. Nigerian youth need to be made aware of the nature of ageing, how it affects everyone’s lives and the need to care for the elderly. The introduction of these programmes into the Nigerian school curriculum would help influence the attitudes of young people about ageing. It may also help them to begin to have a glimpse at their own ageing process and to understand the impact of ageing in their lives so that when they grow older, they will be in a position to make decisions affecting society in general and old people in particular.

This paper was presented at African Conference on Ageing , Johannesburg, South Africa, 2004