Ageing With Dignity

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” –  Nelson Mandela

Opeyemi Adamolekun

My mother, Dr (Mrs) Olukemi Celina Adamolekun, was a rockstar! She was ahead of her time in many ways. With fashion, she rocked ankara suits decades before they became a fad. Aso-oke and adire were also favourites.  In her chosen careers, she practically predicted the future. She had a Master’s in guidance & counselling, and was awarded a PhD in the same field in 1992. It was as if she knew that Nigeria would become so traumatic that all of us would need a therapist! Unfortunately, the demand-to-supply ratio remains very low, and we have not been intentional about building capacity, despite how difficult the country has become. But I digress. In addition to degrees in guidance & counselling, she had degrees in nursing, psychology and social work. She was always about people!

A Master’s in Social Work in 2000 was her last degree at age 54. In the 1990s, as she worked on her PhD and took care of my brothers and me, she engaged in volunteer work focused on the weak: the elderly in hospices, the sick in hospitals and HIV/AIDS patients in specialised centres. She saw closely what care looked like when people were vulnerable. She also saw something else. Traditional family structures were changing on the continent. Elderly people would no longer be able to live with their children in old age, as their children now lived abroad or lived in cities that could not provide ideal support. Many would face loneliness, poverty, and neglect. The degree was to help her deepen her grasp of the theoretical and practical aspects of the caring professions.

That year, in merging her work experience and academic studies, she founded Kaleyewa House, with a simple promise: Ageing with Dignity. Kaleyewa House, a short form of a Yoruba prayer – that God would grant us, was formally registered in October 2001 as a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the elderly in Nigeria. Kaleyewa’s planned intervention was informed by the baseline study she did in 2001 to understand the needs of elders in two communities:  Iju &  Itaogoblu of Akure North LGA in Ondo State. From the study, elders needed three things – (1) food, (2) medical care, and (3) rent for those who do not own homes.

Her vision for Kaleyewa House included meeting those needs as well as building a volunteering culture with retired civil servants & professionals giving back to society; supporting Nigerian universities to develop gerontology programmes; and influencing government policy formulation and implementation. At that time, the care of the elderly was only being addressed in developed countries and a few developing countries.

Tragically, while travelling on Kaleyewa House business, Olukemi was murdered on May 4, 2002, in Ibadan. On the first anniversary of her passing in May 2003, her family chose to continue her vision, and Kaleyewa’s first outreach was in August 2003. Appreciation for her big idea and its impact earned her two posthumous awards in 2005 and 2010. In November 2023, Kaleywa House celebrated 20 years of service to Nigeria’s elderly, with nearly two thousand elders who have received support. Currently, food (rice, beans, salt) is distributed to about four hundred and fifty elders over 75 years old three times a year. Twenty-five vulnerable elders, who are beneficiaries over 90 years old, visually impaired, ill, or bedridden, receive food three more times during the year, totalling six distributions. Medical care is provided bi-monthly in each of the two communities to all the elders.  Food and medical care services are provided to vulnerable elders in their homes.

The Ondo State Government, Kaleyewa’s home state, used to support non-profit organisations, and Kaleyewa House benefited from December 2005 to 2012. In 2011, Ekiti introduced a social security benefit scheme backed by law.  Under the scheme, a N5,000 monthly stipend is paid to selected senior citizens (elders) above the age of 65. 

By mid-2013, 20,000 senior citizens in all the state’s sixteen local government areas were benefiting under the scheme.  Four other states across three geopolitical zones followed Ekiti’s example and implemented variations of the state’s social security benefit scheme – Osun (2012) and Oyo (2013) in the south-west, Bayelsa (2013) in the south-south and Anambra (2013) in the south-east. Unfortunately, none of the states has continued with these programs. This year, Abia State passed a similar law with much fanfare. I hope they have learnt from the experience of the other states.

The National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC) was established by an Act of the National Assembly in 2017 and operationalised in 2021. It has published a Strategic Roadmap on Ageing (2022-2032) and a National Plan of Action on Ageing in Nigeria and Project Activities (2021-2025). The pioneer Director-General, Dr Emem Omokaro, was the keynote speaker at Kaleyewa House’s 20th anniversary in 2023, and she shared the Centre’s plans and achievements in instituting a culture of care for elders across Nigeria. It is certainly not a programme the federal government can drive alone, and states must engage.

My mom would have turned eighty on July 14th, and in her honour, Kaleyewa House hosted “Celebrating Elders in Iju and Itaogbolu” on July 17th to celebrate her posthumous milestone birthday. Adorned in their aso-ebi, with different colours for the Iju elders and Itaogbolu elders, they all had a fun day of food, dancing, and ayo (Itaogbolu beat Iju 2-1). Guests included friends, family members, religious and traditional leaders, community elders, and representatives of Fiwasaiye Old Girls Association, her alma mater. Unfortunately, no invited government official from Ondo & Ekiti attended.

24 years on, would have been “famous”, but we have kept her vision alive. In honour of a rockstar’s posthumous 80th birthday, I invite you to consider partnering with to shape policies and programs that ensure Nigeria’s elderly can truly age with dignity.

Mom, we miss you dearly, and we’re grateful for the life you lived!

•Adamolekun writes from Lagos