It is a usual practice by recruiting organizations to specify age
requirements as part of their eligibility criteria. In most vacancies
the maximum age for entry level applicants is usually pegged at 27/28
and in some ridiculous circumstances 24/25. After consulting the 1999
Constitution I discovered that this practice is unconstitutional as it
is a form of discrimination.
Section 42 subsection 2 states that “No
citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation
merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth”. Ladies and
gentlemen your date of birth and hence your age is a circumstance of
birth so also is your sex and ethnicity. Employers have been getting
away with this constitutional violation because nobody has challenged
the practice rather people go about doctoring their ages so as to meet
up with these ridiculous age requirements.
The following are the
only jobs that the constitution has placed age restrictions and these
jobs are mostly electoral office positions;
1) President ; must be 40 years old...section 131 subsection 2b
2) Vice president; same as that of the president... section 142 subsection 2
3) Senator; must be 35 years old...section 65 subsection 1a
4) House of representative; must be 30 years old... section 65 subsection 1b
5) Governor ; must be 35 years old...section 177 subsection 1b
6)  eputy Governor; ; same as that of the Governor... section 187 subsection 2
7) Members of the house of assembly; must be 30 years old... section 106 subsection 1b
Other
jobs include state commissioners and special advisers to governors
(which have the same requirements as those of members of the house of
assemble) and ministers and special advisers to the president of the
federation (which have the same requirements as those of the House of
Representatives).
Ladies and gentlemen, taking into account our
erratic educational system with its numerous strikes, most students
especially those in federal and state higher institutions end up
graduating in their mid twenties and when you then factor in the one
year NYSC and the waiting period of prospecting for jobs (which could
range from months to years) you will notice that a significant number of
graduates would have exceeded the maximum age limits placed by
prospective employers.
Dear naija jobbers, the wind of change is
blowing and we should not just sit and watch our rights been trampled
upon and I think now is the time to act. In developed countries you will
be prosecuted if you dare place age requirements for any job vacancy.
I do not want to lie about my age because it is not a crime and I shouldn’t be made to suffer for it.
God bless you all.
http://bishopjoe.blogspot.com/2013/08/age-requirement-is-unconstitutional.html
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