CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Sociologists do not question the idea that age and ageing are linked to biological and psychological development, but they cannot be fully understood without reference to their social context. Just as race and sex were once seen in purely biological and psychological terms but now viewed sociologically through concepts such as ethnicity and gender, age can also be seen in sociological terms. From this perspective, age can be seen as, in part, a social construction. The meaning of old age varies from society to society. In the traditional societies, the elderly are revered for their wisdom and have high social status and considerable power (Haralambos et al, 2008). The social status of the elderly have, however, crashed in the contemporary society. At this particular stage, most of the older persons might have been disengaged from their long-life activities. Poverty, emotional and material neglect are the major challenges faced by the aged especially when their family members are nowhere to be found in terms of support.
Most developed countries of the world have accepted the chronological age of 65 years as a definition of ‘elderly’ or older person, but like many westernized concepts, this does not adapt well to the situation in Africa (World Health Organization, 2014). Age classification varied between differences or functional ability related to the workforce, but more often than not was a reflection of the political and economic situation of countries, which could also include the life expectancy of the people of the country. Many a time, the definition is linked to the retirement age, which in some instances, was lower for women than men. This transition in livelihood became the basis for the definition of old age which occurred between ages of 45 and 55 for women and between the ages of 55 and 75 years for men (Thane, 1978).
When attention was drawn to older populations in many developing countries, the definition of old age many times followed the same path as that in more developed countries, that is, the government sets the definition by stating a retirement age. Considering that a majority of old persons in sub-Saharan Africa live in rural areas and work outside the formal sector, and thus expect no formal retirement or retirement benefits, this imported logic seems quite illogical. This is one of the flaws of the definition of older persons from the western world because most of the dwellers in the rural areas of the developing countries work in the informal sector and the application of retirement to old age would not be substantive to work for them. Further, when this definition is applied to regions where relative life expectancy is much lower and size of older population is much smaller, the utility of this definition becomes even more limited. Thus, the definition of older persons shouldn’t be given from a myopic point of view but should consider the fact that the human variation is not an abstract concept but a global phenomenon and the all encompassing concept of age should be put into consideration.
A single definition, such as chronological age or social, cultural, functional markers e.t.c, is commonly used by, amongst others, demographers, sociologists, anthropologists, economists and researchers, it seems more appropriate in Africa to use a combination of chronological, functional and social definitions. Despite Nigeria is considered and classified among the developing countries, it still maintain the definition of 65 years (retirement age) for an old person.
The population of older people is on the increase worldwide. Despite the fact that the life expectancy of humans in developing countries like Nigeria is lower than that of the developed countries. Advances in medicine had contributed to this phenomenon which had seen the population of the Western world to age gracefully and constitute a old population while the developing countries is having a young population due to high fertility rate and lower life expectancy..
Demographically, in most nations of the world, persons below 15 years and 65 and above are regarded as the dependent population which is in contrast to those who are between the ages of 15 and 64 years of age, who are seen as the independent population. The individuals who are 65 and above must have gone through the first stage of dependency (0 – 14 years), second stage of being dependent (15–64 years) and back being dependent again due to old age which must have disengaged then from the active activities in the society.
Livelihood means the way one earns money in order to survive. It also connotes the current condition of individual and households and the ways or means via which they reproduce themselves. Some of the socio-economic factors that may impact on the livelihood of the older persons include relative wealth, poverty, access to resources and ownership of property/assets (Amaike, 2005).
Coping strategy could be referred to the specific efforts, both behavioral and psychological, that people employ to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize stressful events. There are two general coping strategies: problem-solving strategies are efforts to do something active to alleviate stressful circumstances, whereas emotion-focused coping strategies involve efforts to regulate the emotional consequences of stressful or potentially stressful events. Research indicates that people use both types of strategies to combat most stressful events (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). The older persons engage in different coping strategies to keep body, soul and spirit together. For some of them who retired in the formal sectors, the set up small or medium scale businesses like rental services, renting out of building material among others to get their feet grounded after they must have been disengaged from the activities they have done for almost half of the life. Some other people, who had no opportunity of such, go into alms begging and some others depend largely on family members and relatives.
Being old does not necessarily make people poor, it is just that the risk of being poor increases. Those people who are poor in old age are most likely to be those who have earned least in their working days or worked outside the formal sector where pensions and other benefits would be given to them (Moore et al, 2001).