FG’s employment: NYCN hails Reps for Bill removing age barrier

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.