Foundation Endows N50m Professorial Chair At RSU

The O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation has announced a gift of N50 million to endow the High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs Distinguished Professorial Chair in Geriatric Care at the Rivers State University.
The announcement was made last week by chairman of the occasion former military president of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd.), who was represented by General Jones Arogbofa (rtd.) at a special ceremony, ‘A Legacy of Philanthropic Excellence,’ in honor of the Foundation’s grand benefactor, High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs on his first posthumous birthday.
He said, “High Chief Lulu-Briggs made caring of the elderly his top priority. As a result, the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation’s first Programme was its Care for the Elderly Programme.”
He noted that the study of Geriatrics had not received the attention it deserved in Nigeria, despite a growing number of elderly in the society. More than nine million Nigerians are aged 60 and above and according to the global age index this number will be over 20 million by 2030.
He said, “Based on income security, health status, education and employment, the index ranked Nigeria as one of the worst nations for older people to live in. We believe this is because there are presently only a handful of institutions working specifically on Geriatrics in Nigeria.”