Obasanjo Advocates Five Behavioural Practice for Elders

James Sowole in Abeokuta

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, advocated for five behavioural practices that would enable elders to live longer in good health with God grace.

Obasanjo identified the behavioural practices as diet, rest, exercise, medical attention and social interaction, with the acronym (DREAMS).

He said that these are the things elderly people need to be practicing to spend their old age in good health.

Obasanjo spoke when members of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) Senior Citizens Club, hosted members of the Oyo State branch of the Elders Forum after the facility tour of the presidential library complex.

The former president said during interaction with the elders that he had been diagnosed to be diabetic over 40 years but the DREAMS have enabled him to be living a healthy lifestyle.

He said that most diseases that could not be cured completely could be managed with proper lifestyle under DREAMS.

The former president lamented that old people are no longer being taken care of these days due to changes in ways of doing things.

He said that the departure from the tradition of elders playing with their grandchildren, informed establishment of facilities to enable elders to interact with each other.

Obasanjo said the OOPL Senior Citizens Club was established and equipped with modern machines for the use of elderly people to make them live a healthy lifestyle.

The former president, therefore, admonished elderly people to engage in social interaction, as an important factor to keep them healthy.