FG’s employment: NYCN hails Reps for Bill removing age barrier
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/05/fgs-employment-nycn-hails-reps-for-bill.html
The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has commended the House
of Representatives for passing a bill removing age brackets in
employments.
Kenny Awujoola, National Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the
council in a statement on Saturday, said that the bill will give better
employment opportunity to youths.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill seeking to
stop age discrimination against job seekers in Federal Government
Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs).
The bill: a “Bill for an Act to Eradicate the Age Discrimination
against Job seekers in Federal Government Agencies,” was sponsored by
Rep. Sergius Ogun (APC, Edo) and Rep. Babajimi Benson (APC, Lagos).
The Bill seeks to among other things, save from final condemnation,
youths who through no fault of theirs, had not gotten employed years
after leaving school.
The bill however excludes military and paramilitary agencies from the
age barrier removal in view of the peculiarity of their duties and
recruitment procedure.
Reacting to the passage , the NYCN PRO said that qualified youths who
had hitherto been deprived opportunity to apply for many FG jobs will
now get the chance to compete with others older or younger.
“It is a welcome development from the NYCN, the apex Youth body in
Nigeria, ensuring that the fundamental human rights of Nigerian Youths
are highly protected and respected.
“The passage of this bill would surely address the issue of
unemployment especially among older graduates – those who went through
tough time to see themselves to school and graduated maybe at an older
age, would no longer have to suffer unemployment.
“This bill also encourages many to seek education at any age knowing
that they would not be subjected to the barrier of age discrimination.
The NYCN therefore called on the private sector – ‘the major culprit’
to take a cue from the new bill and minimise undue discrimination and
stop pegging age limit at 25 or 26.
The council argued that the age discrimination also limits the
chances of the companies to select from a wider variety of qualified
people.
The council expressed optimism that more laws that would help the
youths would be enacted while the unfavourable ones would be re-visited.