By JOHN AKUBO

Worried by the danger of having thousands of unemployed graduates roaming the streets of Nigerian cities in search of jobs amidst 13 years embargo on employment by the Federal Government, the Senate has moved to review the age limit for employment.

The Senate urged the federal government to direct the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Productivity to set up a committee to review the age limit with a view to sorting the logjam of age barrier to allow skilled and competent Nigerians to be employed by MDAs.

This was sequel to a motion on urgent need to reduce age barriers for job seekers during recruitment and employment exercises moved by Senator Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto East).

Senator Ibrahim Gobir (APC, Sokoto), in his lead debate, said the age barrier had prevented many Nigerians from securing employment in government agencies.

He said due to the high unemployment rate in the country, many graduates spend ten years or more seeking jobs and this puts them in a disadvantage position by no fault of theirs.

He added that many individuals decided to falsify their age to fall within the age limit for them to be gainfully employed.

Senator Bala Ibn N’allah in his contribution said the motion was apt and timely.

“I think the legal basis for this senate to proceed on that lies in the fact that as an institution we must take judicial notice of the fact Federal Government on its own placed embargo on employment for over 13 years,” the senator said.

“So that period of the embargo placed by the Federal Government itself should be what we should consider in the review of the age limit.

“For example, if the age limit is 23 we will now add the 13 or 14 years of the embargo on employment to the age already benchmarked for employment so that the age will now be plus 13 because it is the Government on its own that placed the embargo on employment.” (The Guardian)