The decision taken by the upper chamber to ensure that competent applicants are employed by the ministries, departments and agencies of government, stemmed from the motion sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Gobir.

Gobir said;

“Age barriers inadvertently excludes and marginalises skillful and competent prospective applicants from participating in such exercises”.

“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.”

Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah also recalled how the federal government placed an embargo on employment over 13 years ago. According to him, this must be taken into consideration by the labour ministry.

Na’Allah 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.

“The period that there have been embargo by the federal government in itself should be considered in the review of age limit.

“For example, if the age limit is 23, we must now add the 13 or 14 years of embargo on employment to the age already earmarked for employment, so that the age will be plus thirteen because it is the government on its own that placed the embargo on employment.

“There cannot be justification for you to place embargo on employment, then at the same time expect graduates to remain at the age they were during the period of the embargo.

“I think in the review, that has to be taken into account, and therefore, the age limit can now be raised in addition to the established age. That should be the legal verdict for the review.”

Commenting on the motion, the Senate President Ahmad Lawan decried the discrimination against job seekers as a result of the barrier imposed by the prescribed age limit.

Lawan said;

“It is not through a fault of theirs that people are discriminated against. They’ll tell you only 30 years limit, meanwhile, someone graduated ten years ago. This is a very good motion.”