AN APPRAISAL OF CONTEMPORARY INCREASE OF OLDER PERSONS’ PARTICIPATION IN SOCIETAL ISSUES AND RETIREMENT SINCE INDEPENDENCE

Nigeria, as a nation, has passed through a lot of political, social and economic milestones since independence in 1960.A number of these events are majorly political, such as change of government that is usually violent and which led to fatality whenever it involved violent change of power by the Nigerian military. Furthermore, elections have been found to be violent owing to irregularities and attempt to rig or prevent rigging in an election. Also, the concept of economic instability has also been a major issue for the Nigerian state since independence. Despite, these major issues, there are insidious occurrences that do not relate in whole, to economic or social issues but population group such as adolescent, women and older persons. This paper adopts qualitative research method while content analysis was used to analyse issues relating to increase in older persons and retirement within the Nigerian state, since the nation's independence in 1960. The study concludes that increasing number of older persons and the concept of retirement are unprecedented occurrences in Nigeria since independence. Thus, it demands urgent legislation, policy and practices in addressing challenges emanating from the increase in number of older persons and retirees. A number of recommendations such as the need for increasing attention to older persons ’and retirees’ issues through legislation and affirmative action such as payment of social pension to all older persons and prompt payment of gratuity and pension to retirees are suggested in the paper.