By Oyez Olatunde Rex
In every election cycle, political conversations tend to be around the loudest groups in the society which are: the young, the working population, and the politically mobile. Yet, one constituency remains consistently overlooked despite having given their entire lives to society: pensioners, retirees, and the aged folks.
These are men and women who built Kwara’s civil service, classrooms, hospitals, courts, public facilities, and institutions, only to enter old age at the mercy of delayed pensions, inadequate healthcare, and social invisibility.
Their concerns are often acknowledged rhetorically, but rarely addressed indeed.
As Kwara approaches the 2027 governorship election, it may be time for senior citizens to ask a different question: not which party? But which kind of leader truly understands ageing with dignity?
The Silent Crisis of Ageing in Kwara
In Kwara, as much as can be said of Nigeria, old age is not supported by systems; the aged in the past have survived through endurance.
Retirees wait months, sometimes years for entitlements. Healthcare costs rise, precisely when their incomes disappear, Mobility reduces and Loneliness increases.
At this vulnerable time, the aged are often dependent on:
. Children who are themselves economically strained,
. Informal charity, or
. Sheer resilience.
This is not a failure of effort by families; it is a failure of public policy imagination of leaders.
Why Leadership Exposure Matters at this time
One of the least discussed, but most consequential qualities in leadership, is exposure to alternative systems for comparison to our existing systems.
Prof. Wale Sulaiman’s long professional sojourn in the Western world has immersed him in societies where ageing is planned for, not improvised.
In those systems:
. Retirement is a transition, not a fall,
. Healthcare is structured around geriatric needs,
. Assisted living and senior-care facilities are standard, and
. The aged are treated as assets of wisdom, not liabilities of cost.
This exposure is not theoretical. It shapes the perception of a leader. Political leaders govern based on what they believe is normal. Prof. Sulaiman has seen, has participated in building societies where dignity in old age is non-negotiable.
But beyond exposure, Prof Wale Sulaiman has displayed ample evidence of instinctive passion for the care of the vulnerable people in the society, because while fully engaged abroad, Prof. Sulaiman’s medical outreach efforts have consistently focused on the weak, the vulnerable, and those excluded from access.
His past antecedents do not portray the posture of a man indifferent to suffering, it is the pattern of someone whose professional life has trained him to respond to weaknesses in the vulnerable with compassion.
For pensioners and retirees, this matters. Caring for the aged cannot be improvised by many opportunistic leaders who see vulnerability only as a campaign photo opportunity. It requires policy empathy backed by institutional thinking.
In the absence of strong public systems, retirees in Kwara depend largely on the goodwill of the working population, their children, relatives, religious bodies, and neighbours.
This dependency is not sustainable. It creates:
. Emotional strain,
. Financial guilt within families, and
. Quiet erosion of self-worth among the elderly.
A society that leaves its aged to negotiate dignity privately has already failed publicly.
What Could Change Under a Different Kind of Governor
A governor shaped by global best practices would not see the care of our senior citizens as charity, but as governance responsibility.
Under such leadership, Kwara could realistically begin to see:
. State-supported geriatric healthcare frameworks,
. properly structured senior citizens living and assisted-care institutions,
. Pension administration treated as a moral and fiscal priority,
. Public-private partnerships focused on elderly care services.
These are not luxuries; they are indications of a humane society which care for the weak and vulnerable members.
Why the Party you Support Should Not Matter on This Question
Ageing is not partisan. Pension delays do not check party membership cards. Illness does not respect political affiliation.
For retirees and the aged, the 2027 election should be less about party loyalty and more about leadership temperament, about who has both the exposure and the instinct to build systems that protect dignity when strength fades.
Prof. Wale Sulaiman represents a leadership possibility informed by societies that take senior citizens’ care seriously, and by a personal professional journey that has consistently gravitated toward the vulnerable.
A Rare Opportunity for a Different Legacy
Every administration leaves a legacy. Few leave one that fundamentally changes how a society treats its elders.
For pensioners, retirees, and senior citizens in Kwara, 2027 presents a rare chance to support leadership that could lay the foundation for the first real institutions of aged people’s care in the state, not as afterthoughts, but as deliberate policy priorities.
Supporting such a candidate is not about sentiment. It is about self-preservation, dignity, and justice.
