30+ and employers. • Agonies of the unemployed, over-aged graduates

In many advertorials for employment, there is usually an age bar which always restricts job seekers nearing 30 from applying for jobs.  The reasons behind this and concludes that, aside the redefining of the middle class age, continual disruptions in school calendar make an applicant older than he should be at graduation.

JAMES Okechukwu, 36, is a graduate of Sociology.  After completing his one year mandatory youth service corps in Sokoto State in 2007, he virtually visited almost all companies in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt in search of a good job. James left the University of Ibadan with a good grade in 2006 with a high hope that all would be well. Apart from having a very poor background which slowed down his academic pursuits, he equally lost his uncle who was fending for him when he was in year two. The Imo State born promising man had to fight a long battle with poverty throughout his stay in UI. When he graduated eventually, he had hoped securing a good job would assuage his sufferings and past harrowing experiences.
Four years have passed, James is yet to get employed. The best he has got in a couple of years was an offer from a private secondary school to help teach junior secondary school students Social Studies with a meagre salary. He had gone for interviews in some blue chip companies but had been screened out due to what the managements of the companies called ‘old age’.  Yet to get married, James told this reporter that he had lost his will to live, noting that as an unemployed graduate life had dealt him barrages of blows.

James’ pathetic story is reminiscent of what an average Nigerian graduate passes through. The labour market is already saturated, hence the outrageous and stringent requirements often stipulated by few employers in the country for millions of candidates seeking employment for a few slots in their companies.
Apart from asking candidates to have good grades, most employers of labour in Nigeria often set age limit for job seekers and also require them to have certain years of experience depending on the companies and positions being applied for.
In its graduate trainees recruitment, which ended recently, one of the leading new generation banks in Nigeria, put maximum age of 24 years old for potential job applicants. The bank specifically stated that any applicant’s  year of  birth  should not exceed 1987. Many consulting companies operating in the country often stipulate age limits ranging from 22 to 27 for job applicants.
A source in Access told Sunday Tribune that setting age limit was one of the ways employers of labour sieve millions of job applicants who run after few positions, noting that it was also the bank’s policy  to recruit young, intelligent and teachable school graduates who can fit in into the bank’s system. She said that it was a global trend as employers only recruit young applicants who are expected to grow on the job and eventually reach the top management level of their companies.
“Age is a factor in employment issue. It is believed by some employers that some tasks are better performed by individuals who fall within certain age bracket. It is a psychological thing. When you employ applicants close to their late 20s or early 30s, you have succeeded in bringing to your company people who may be battling with a number of psychological issues within them.
Issues such as marriage, educational commitment (for those who still want to continue their education), health and many others could interfere and serve as a disturbance in their jobs. The ultimate effects of this would affect the turn-over of the company where these people are working. It is believed that having a healthy staff with little or no physical or emotional burdens would also help in producing a healthy company with no burdens whatsoever.
“Our bank is not the only one that sets age limit, virtually all other banks operating in Nigeria do it, and the reason is not far fetched: to reduce cost of training and prevent bringing on board individuals who have nothing to offer. We only need more manageable and productive people who can easily imbibe our organisation culture,” the source said.

Job seekers at a recruitment venue.

Speaking with a psychologist on whether age could impact one’s performance, Dr. Tunde Olaoye of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, told Sunday Tribune that developmental psychology has truly established a nexus between one’s age and performance, either in the area of job delivery, sexual performance or life pursuits. He said as individuals age, they become introspective, thinking about a wide range of issues that shape their lives. “At this level, a lot of psychomotor actions taken by them affect them if they are working. When an individual has had turbulence sojourning through life and has encountered many daunting challenges, the possibility of getting affected by these stored up experiences could affect one’s choices and actions, because his actions will provide outlets for them. An old person that has gone through life ordeals is not likely to perform favourably on the job, because his performance will definitely be impacted by his past bad experiences. Many employers are aware of this. Pay a visit to some companies; you will see the way the workers there behave. In the civil service, banks and many other companies providing services to members of the public, you will be amazed at the way the employees there behave. They bark at you at the slightest provocation and ignore you as if you were an ant. Haven’t you encountered uncouth cashiers in a banking hall who will talk down on you as if you were their baby? It is as a result of their emotional upheavals and scores of bad experiences which they often let loose on customers who require their services. Companies, who know these, have devised means to put a stop to it. This is why most of them come up with age limit to employ good-mannered, intelligent and young school leavers whom they believe will not be difficult to relate with,” Dr. Olaoye noted. A management consultant, who currently works in a leading employment consulting companies in Lagos, Ms. Bola Durojaiye-Jones, informed Sunday Tribune that her company had, in the last six months, received a large number of applications from job applicants. She said a look at the certificates and applications received from Nigerian job seekers showed graduates with good grades, but over aged. ‘Our clients gave specific instructions to recruit young school leavers, aged between 24 and 27. There is nothing we can do about it. We have to follow their instructions and get them what they want.
“They know that applicants are many, they are also aware of the dysfunctional nature of the nation’s educational system, yet they must source for employees from this dysfunctional system, hence their resolve to employ younger persons who can be trained and retrained in order to bring out the best in them. Bringing in old graduates is not cost effective, because most of them may amount to a waste, even when you have trained them and sent them for refresher courses,’’ Ms. Bola added.
When asked who is an old person, the consultant, said the prevailing socio-economic situations in the country, had changed the notion of age, saying an old person in Nigeria’s setting is someone who is beyond 27 years of age. ‘Middle age has been redefined here. It is no longer 40. It is around 27 or thereabouts. The fact of the matter is that nobody will employ you once you are above 27, because of productivity issue. Young persons tend to be more productive than the older folks,’’ Ms. Bola affirmed.
Nigeria’s labour law seems to be silent about age discrimination or age factor in the nation’s labour sector. Nigeria’s Labour Act of 1990, for example, is mute about  the issue of age discrimination in employment. The relevant section of the Act only talks about the conditions on which a young person can work. Section 59, sub-sections 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 only state the conditions on which a young person can work in the country.
However, the U.K Age Discrimination in Employment Act  of 2006 makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate against a person on the basis of age. This applies to all age group. In the US, there are regulations that give protection to older workers. Once one is within the legal working age, one cannot be denied employment on the basis of being old or too old. Many Western countries have followed suit by domesticating this legislation to protect the rights of employable citizens.
An Ilorin-based lawyer, Mr. Tunji Bello, said the National Human Rights Commission and the National Assembly have failed to notice this discrepancy, noting that employers of labour in the country ought to be called to order and be mandated to desist from the practice. “No nation can develop where a section of its population is rendered unemployed not on the basis of their competence but because they are old.
In advanced countries, emphasis is placed on productivity, competence and performance and not on age factor. It is ridiculous. The National Assembly, labour unions and the National Human Rights Commission have failed in their responsibilities, because they have covertly encouraged unemployment in the country by not calling employers of labour in the country to order,’’ the lawyer stated.
A job seeker, Gbolahan Adeleye, blamed prolonged school sessions for the late completion of education by many Nigerian graduates. He added that incessant industrial actions embarked upon by teaching and non teaching staff in the nation’s ivory towers had made many of them spent many years in school than necessary.
“A normal educational system ought to make one become a graduate at the age of 23, 24 or thereabouts, but in Nigeria, it is not like that because you have to add years wasted by ASUU, NASU and students unrest; by the time you put everything together, you would have spent close to eight or nine years pursuing a course that ought to last four years and ultimately become a graduate at 29, 30 or 32,’’ he lamented.
Stakeholders in the labour sector have, therefore, called on the Federal Government to revise its labour law, so as to cater for the interests of the disadvantaged who are denied jobs because of their age. They said if the nation’s labour law is not revised to accommodate relevant sections to protect job seekers, many competent and intelligent Nigerian graduates would be left roaming the streets, a situation they described as being counter productive.
Written by EMMANUEL ADENIYI