Senior Citizens Home: President Tinubu’s Wife Commends Gov Eno

… Calls For Nationwide Action To Replicate Project
By Bassey Nkponam 
IKONO 
Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has inaugurated the Akwa Ibom State Geriatric Centre, formally called ARISE Elderly Citizens Centre, applauding Governor Umo Eno’s realisation of vision and for prioritising the welfare of senior citizens in the State.
The centre renamed Senator Oluremi Tinubu Senior Citizens Centre, located at the Medical Corridor in Ikono, is a state-of-the-art facility designed to provide comprehensive care and support for senior citizens aged 65 and above. 
This innovative centre combines healthcare, recreation, enterprise, and spiritual support under one roof, promoting healthy ageing, social interaction, and economic engagement, while also aiming at reducing loneliness, promoting peer bonding and empowering seniors to contribute meaningfully to society.
   Inaugurating the centre over the weekend, Tinubu said the project aligns with her social investment programme where elderly citizens across the country are provided monthly resources to cater for themselves, maintaining that a society that honours the elderly is the one that understands responsibility, gratitude and continuity.
The First Lady eulogized the Late First Lady of the State, Pastor Patience Umo Eno, for her vision for elderly citizens in the State, and thanked the governor for realising that vision which has exceeded her personal vision of what the project should look like. 
She also thanked him for building on the vision of the Late State’s First Lady and urged other State governors to adopt, emulate and replicate the passionate gesture across their States.
Tinubu thanked Eno for advancing her N50, 000 monthly social investment initiative programme to the elderly which aligned with her earlier proposal of a special economic support, urging the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, to enact the bill at the National Assembly for the benefit of senior citizens in Nigeria. 
Highlighting the importance of the Social Investment Economic Bill, Tinubu stressed the need for monthly stipends to the elderly as rewards for their contribution as custodians of history of the society and to help them cater for their personal needs and family welfare. 
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, commended Eno for ensuring the realisation of the vision of the late First Lady of the State, and for prioritising the welfare of senior citizens in the State.
Akpabio, who was satisfied with the quality of the project, urged other State governors to emulate Akwa Ibom example by providing same project in their states for their elderly citizens.
The State governor, Pastor Umo Eno, welcomed and thanked Nigeria’s First Lady for accepting to visit Akwa Ibom to grace the inauguration of the passionate brain child of his late wife, which aligns with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Initiative, as it relates with the care of elders.
“This project aligns with your Renewed Hope Initiative, especially as it relates to elders’ care. This is our own little way of saying to our elders, thank you for your service, your mentorship and your love. 
“In old age, you should not walk alone, we should show our gratitude to all you have toiled and sacrificed for our State. That is what my wife used to constantly remind me that we should and must do. And I am glad today that we have gotten this centre up and running”, he said. 
The governor made known his administration’s vision to replicate the project across the three senatorial districts, and to send a bill for the protection of the rights to cater for elderly citizens in the State to the State House of Assembly, and urged the speaker of the State House of Assembly, Elder Udeme Otong, to work towards ensuring the speedy passage of the bill. 
“This is only one of three centres that will be built for the elderly across the three senatorial districts. We have gone ahead to send a bill to the House of Assembly to ensure that there is a law that will permanently cater for the elderly in our State. I trust the speaker in his usual manner to help facilitate the passage of the bill”. 
He restated his administration’s passionate commitment to ensuring the welfare of the people, especially the elders, and appreciated Nigeria’s First Lady for tempering the elders through the Elderly Support Scheme of N450,000 cash grant for the vulnerable which his administration has adopted and domesticated in the State. 
“We are a government that is deeply connected towards ensuring the welfare of our people, especially the elders. Permit me, Your Excellency, our mother to thank you for the great work you started through the Elderly Support Scheme where you provided N450, 000 cash grants for the vulnerable and the neediest in the country, a great initiative that my wife adopted and we domesticated it in our State. 
“Today, we can proudly tell you that every month across the 369 wards in our State, 600 elders are given N50,000 each to care for their immediate needs. Quite a number of these elders have been enrolled in our State Medical Insurance Scheme free of charge”.
Eno commended the delivery advisor of the project, Dr. Ita-Anwan James, for her sacrificial effort to interpret the dream through diligent and quality supervision, and the contractor, U&K Limited, for the passion, dedication and professional engagement to ensure the timely delivery of the project.
The coordinator of the Office of the First Lady, Lady Helen Eno Obareki, recalled the yearning of her late mother for an elderly citizens’ centre in the State, expressing satisfaction that the vision of her late mother has been actualised through the support of her father and governor.
   Giving an overview of the project, the delivery advisor, Dr. Ita-Awan James, recalled that the project was passionately conceived by the Late First Lady, Pastor Patience Umo Eno, to cater for the needs and care as reward for senior citizens of the State, most of whom have been relegated and abandoned after their years of dedicated service to the development of the State.
James noted that the project has been designed and equipped to provide care and comfort to the elderly, and with professional care givers to make them feel a sense of belonging, adding that the facility is equipped with a clinic for necessary health care, as well as recreational facilities for different exercises and game rooms. 
She described Governor Eno as a pragmatic, passionate and transformative leader who feels the pulse of his people, lauding him for actualising the vision of her late wife, Patience.