Ageing and urban-rural drift in Nigeria: coping or dispensing with city accommodation in retirement

The massive press attentions attracted by the plight of pensioners in Nigeria appear to provide the extrinsic nudge and popular support for the 2004 pension reform. In some sense, these sets of exposés offered a new peephole into the yawning care and support gap for the elderly in the country. Against the background of counteracting processes of population ageing and receding formal and informal social protection and support mechanisms, the country appears ill-prepared to tackle the unfolding old age bulge and its myriad challenges. The paper addresses one of the most basic needs and choices confronting older people after retirement: the resolve to cope or dispense with city (or urban) accommodation. Such decisions have become increasingly critical not only because they are principal determinants of urban-rural drift but also because of the changing circumstances (of weakening support systems and increased vulnerability) under which they are made. The paper explores these important ageing issue and their implications for policy in Nigeria.