Senate wants age limit scrapped for job
seekers
The Senate on Wednesday, asked the President, Major General
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to direct the Federal Ministry of Labour and
Productivity to set up a Committee to review the age limit for job seekers in
the country to allow competent applicants to be employed by the ministries,
departments, and agencies of government
The resolution followed
the consideration of a motion by Senator Ibrahim Gobir.
Gobir cited order 42 and 52 of the
Senate Standing Rules, and noted that recruitment requirements of MDAs and
other private bodies which set age barriers, “inadvertently excludes and
marginalises skillful and competent prospective applicants from participating
in such exercises”.
He said, “Due to the high
unemployment rate in the country, many graduates spend up to 10 years seeking
employment and this puts them in a disadvantaged position by no fault of their
own.
“Many individuals resort to
falsifying their age all in a bid to fall within the required age limit for
them to be gainfully employed.
“This development, where a person
believes he is unemployable, can lead them to embracing criminal activities and
further increase the growing crime rate and insecurity in the country.”
In his contribution, Senator Bala
Ibn Na’Allah drew the attention of the upper chamber to the Federal
Government’s embargo on employment over 13 years ago.
He said the embargo period must be
factored into the review of age limit by the Ministry of Labour and
Productivity for prospective job seekers in the country.
He said, “I think the motion is apt
and timely. The major basis for the Senate to proceed on that request lies in
the fact that, as an institution, we must take notice that the federal
government on its own placed embargo on employment for over thirteen years now.
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