One of the signs that Nigeria is not keen on becoming a developed country is that she officially promotes different forms of discrimination. She discriminates against her own people on ethnicity, religion, gender, marital status, financial status, education, disability, age and other parameters. But let us narrow this discussion to age discrimination.
When I finished university and was undertaking my mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps scheme, one thing that was common with vacancies for fresh graduates, popularly tagged “management trainees,” was the age restriction on them. Virtually all the ads had “not more than 26 years” as a condition.
I was lucky then to be less than 26 years old and got a job in an advertising firm but some of my classmates were not that lucky. For such people, no company would offer them a job as fresh graduates with no experience. All the other vacancies had “not less than two years cognate experience” on them.
By this official form of age discrimination, Nigeria gave a tacit endorsement to people to falsify their age. All it takes is for one to approach the premises of a law court and some touts would quickly type a police report of loss of birth certificate, then a court official would sign a document called an attestation of birth. Both the police and court officials would not even see the person they were signing the so-called trusted document for. All that was required was for payment to be made.
Consequently, any time Nigerians see someone with an attestation of age, they would conclude that the person has engaged in age falsification. I had such an experience. While working in advertising on my first job, a vacancy advert for an oil company came out. Oil company job was the most lucrative and prestigious in Nigeria then. The oil company wanted “management trainees” who must not be more than 26 years. But the oil company did not want any other document except a government document as proof of age. I had been using the original copy of my baptismal certificate as evidence of my age right from my primary school. It showed my date of birth and date of baptism. Its weather-beaten nature would immediately tell anyone of its genuineness. But this oil company would not accept it. It preferred a document that could be obtained easily with any chosen age stated on it. I was then compelled to go to a law court premises in Ikeja, Lagos with my baptismal certificate to get my attestation. I thought the officials would ask for evidence of my age but nobody bothered with that.
Age discrimination is not for fresh graduates alone. Some jobs for middle-level managers put an age restriction of not more than 40 years. The moment workers in Nigeria are over 40 years old, their chances of getting a good job begin to nosedive. When they are 50, the employment door is completely closed on them. The only people who may still be found relevant at this age are those working in similar positions in other organisations who are being head-hunted.
Why do many Nigerians falsify their age? It is because Nigeria officially discriminates against people based on age. Interestingly, most Nigerians don’t even see this as discrimination. They see it as a necessary employment requirement just like an educational requirement or professional experience. But it is a terrible form of discrimination that should have no place in any country that believes in equal opportunities and frowns at all forms of discrimination.
It is only when one compares Nigeria with other countries where people’s rights are respected and protected that one sees the harm Nigeria does to her citizens through age discrimination. Let us look at what obtains in Canada, for example.
Canada’s provisions prohibiting age discrimination are in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“Charter”), which applies to all jurisdictions and governmental entities. Section 15 (1) of the Charter contains an equality clause, which provides as follows: “Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.”
In Canada, it is against the law for an organisation to put any age restriction on any vacancy. Unlike in Nigeria, where you are required to state your date of birth in your CV, you are not required to do so in Canada. In Nigeria you are required to state your local government of origin, state of origin, religion, gender, age, marital status – all of which can be used to give you the job or deny you the job. But in Canada, it is against the law to ask applicants their age, gender, marital status, religion, race or sexual orientation.
For goodness’ sake, what you need is the employees’ skills. What is the relevance of their age to the work they will do? If the job requires physical strength, give them a physical test and those who cannot do it will eliminate themselves.
Just as the 25-year-old man needs to earn money to pay his bills is the same way a 60-old-year man needs to earn money to pay his bills. As long as the person has not reached the age of retirement, which starts at 65 years in Canada but comes into full effect at 70, the person has equal right to employment. You dare not discriminate against him.
People can take time off work to go back to school or have babies or look after their babies or parents. Any time they are ready to look for a job, they should be able to do so without any discrimination.
Nigeria criminalises the aging process. Ironically the same Nigeria, which engages in job discrimination based on age, has no reasonable welfare package for the aged like a country like Canada that ensures that every old person— respectably referred to as a “senior citizen” — is catered for until death.
Nigeria should show some seriousness and humanity and stop behaving like a country existing in the stone age. There should be a law criminalising all forms of employment discrimination based on age (as well as gender, and other irrelevant factors). Age discrimination on employment makes people to hate getting old and encourages people to falsify their age. It may cause depression, emotional trauma and even lead to suicide for many people who cannot get a job based on their age and, therefore, feel emasculated that they cannot perform their obligations to their immediate family, nuclear family and community.
Twitter: @BrandAzuka
