The chairman, Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), Federal Medical Center (FMC), Abuja, Dr Okafo Nwachukwu Chikezie, has said that good welfarism for Nigerians and particularly retirees from public service will cut down corruption by half or more.
Chikezie stated this while speaking to journalists during a medical outreach at the Amazing Grace Foundation Old People’s Home, as part of activities to mark the 7th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the association, which began on Saturday, July 23, 2022.
“It is unfortunate our system has remained what it was if not worse. It has become a common thing that prior to the National Pension Commission (PenCom), after service, it becomes an issue for many civil servants to receive their gratuity, we are talking about people who have worked yet the system doesn’t cater for them very well, not to talk about those who hadn’t the opportunity of being in the civil or public service.
“In more developed countries, they have social welfare systems, where even young people who get pregnant out of wedlock are given stipends not to talk of older people who have paid their dues.
“They have elder people’s homes where they attend to them in very comfortable manner, that feel like a home away from home,” he said.
According to Dr Chikezie, it was lack of such welfarism that had encouraged corruption in Nigeria.
“We have people who want to make money for the next coming four generations because there is no welfare system in this country, if there is, corruption will reduce by half or more,” he stressed.
Speaking on the Association, Dr Chikezie said: “We are a group of employees primarily concerned with protecting the welfare of our members, meeting regularly and also involved in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).”
He said as part of activities to mark the year, the Association had embarked on the Free Medical Outreach for the elderly as well engaged in sports and training activities for its members, among others.
The Federal Medical Center Abuja is the youngest in the country launched 2013. The Association was founded in 2014 and finally took off in 2016 with 18 members gradually transforming to 80-member strenght.
Meanwhile responding to the visit by the association, founder, Amazing Grace Foundation, Chief Ifeyinwa Obegolu, said she felt very good about the visit, noting that their support had always come from good spirited individuals including international organisations, Faith Based Organisations (FBOs), as well as good spirited individuals, among others.
She said after over a decade of their activities at the Home, the Nigerian government was yet to acknowledge and support them and the inmates.
Chief Obegolu stressed that their greatest challenge remains lack of finance and inadequate accomodations.
“If the government can intervene and help us, it will go a long way,” adding that over 60 persons are constantly in need of the facility but they cannot afford to accommodate them all.
“We are not talking of the rich but the poor elderly, people who cannot feed themselves or even afford a meal a day, the poor who have no one, those picked from the streets, those abandoned and those brought by various religious organisations are our targets, these are the people we are talking about that need government intervention.
“I am so happy because every medical bill I pay myself but today they have come to our aid and we are very happy,” she added.
A beneficiary, who preferred to be called ‘Mama America’, said the Home was recommended to them all the way from America where she had stayed with her children.
She, however, noted that the Home lacks lots of basic things and called on the government and other spirited individuals to come to their aid and support the Home.
Services offered in the Home, she said, include food, medical attention and care.
An admin in the home, Mrs Caroline Abel, said the Home over the period caters for over 800 persons drawn from the aged, the less privileged and victims of domestic violence, among others.
