Horrors of a Nigerian Job Seeker. By; Okorie Gideon Iheukwumere

          Horrors of a Nigerian Job Seeker.

By; Okorie Gideon Iheukwumere 

‘Eligibility: must have completed NYSC, must not be more than 26 years old, at least three years of  work experience.’ 

A significant degree of unfairness presides over the recruitment processes in our country, but we seem to be so comfortable with it. All over the world, employers screen job applicants to find the best fit for their firms, and to a very large extent, they adopt similar recruiting models. However, some unique challenges are peculiar with the Nigerian environment and require due attention. 

Schooling in Nigeria is a lot different from the advanced countries, and this is no news. The multiple hurdles of delay during school years (secondary and tertiary education) are supposed to influence how we employ, but it doesn’t. Just like we take ideological economic policies propounded by Economists, old and new, dead and alive, and structure them to meet home needs, the attitude towards recruitment should follow the same vein. On an average, using the Universal Basic Education scheme, one begins primary education at six years of age, runs through six years in primary school, three years in Junior Secondary and three years in Senior Secondary. Hence everyone is expected to be out of school at 18, on the average. 

The predicaments of Nigerian students begin with the WAEC exams. The educational system has often been criticised for being below standard, poorly equipped and under-funded, and this invariably reflects on the outcome of the WAEC results. High rates of malpractice gave birth to cancellation of results, the sinner and the saint gets the same verdict of failure, and one year flips. In 2018 as WAEC reports, only 50% of all candidates for the exam passed five subjects, including Mathematics and English. This 50% refers to a little more than 700,000 candidates. Invariably, 700,000 candidates may reseat for the exam the following year, Hopefully, they may not, NECO may help out… but it also has its numbers in failures. 

This is not a call to pity a bunch of candidates that couldn’t make their WAEC for employment, but an insight to pending issues that need to be addressed in our “war against unemployment”. There is yet another age snatcher in the school system. It prides itself with the name JAMB. Everyone knows about JAMB. Even brilliant minds are not free from its reach and hooks. Still, in 2018, the board notified that only 25% of its 1,603,181 registered candidates scored 200 and above. The rest battled with less. With 25%, we are referring to about 400,000 candidates. These over one million remaining candidates may have had one or two years snatched from them by WAEC or maybe not, but JAMB just took a sip of one more year. For some, it sips three years in a row, others four or five, and on the extreme seven and above. The 18 years old boy or girl is no more 18. They’ve had 1 – 5 years or more taken away from them because of the failed system, not because they are dumb or lazy. 

Post-UTMEs or Aptitude tests have their own seat and share in the table where our ages are served. To many who made JAMB, on many occasions, they failed to secure admission into the university of their choice because of this hurdle. Maybe the federal government's reason for insisting on its termination a few years ago included a reduction in the number of diners at the age restaurant, among other purposes such as fraudulent activities, that doesn’t matter anymore because they are back. To some candidates, WAEC was no issue, JAMB is a walkover, but this is hell. There are corrupt practices in our institutions, especially at the admission point. A lot of 'who do you knows?', 'how much can you pay?' etc. Unfortunately, this has the resemblance of most recruitment processes, but that is a talk for another day. 

The last but not the least is a respecter of no one. It is presumably the owner of the restaurant, or perhaps its primary customer. It is renowned for its remarkable prowess of appending longevity to a student’s year of study in the university. ASUU, the one name all students fear. It has a timeline, a history of its acts. Following the 2018 article of Pulse.ng, there has been; in (1999) – five months strike, 2001 – three months, 2002 – two weeks, 2003 – six months, 2005 – two weeks, 2006 – one week, 2007 – three months, 2008 – one week, 2009 – four months, 2010 – five months, 2011 – almost 2 months (59 days), 2013 – 5 months, 2017 – one month, and 2018 – three months. The sum of all strikes, in Nigerian University in the last 20 years equals, two years and two months of shutdown. It does not have to be so. Internal strikes in respective schools have even done more significant harm. 

Until these impediments are crossed and resolved, it is unjust to uniformly place an age range of not more than 26 years of age or 27 as the case may be. Even recently, it drifts down to more of 25. Of course, the situation is different for folks who attended private institutions or schooled abroad, but they are in the minority and should not be used as a yardstick. Even the situations recorded do not all apply to every public university student or graduate, but in different dosages and measures, everyone had a cut in the cake. 

This article intends to draw attention to a common global pursuit of fighting discrimination in all of its forms. Discrimination against race (racism) in the employment process has been stepped down to an insignificant amount globally. Although prevalent in some places, the workplace has seen new dimensions of talent, creativity and innovations as well as all-round economic growths and developments. Discrimination against sex (sexism) have introduced an equal opportunity to both genders to grow and develop together,  attached significance to everyone irrespective of their gender and has bettered the world ever since. Although the fight is still very much active, equality at the workplace is winning over discrimination.


In the same vein, let us fight the “isms” at once. Let our workplace not choose which “ism” favours it and which does not, which one to fight and which one to embrace. Ageism is just as bad. Discrimination against age. Countries making deliberate attempts to get rid of ageism establish age laws that monitors the work environment and protects the interest of citizens against the ghastly effects of this “ism”, which happens to include increased unemployment. Every one of the “isms” we fight is things beyond our human control. No one has control over what race to belong to at birth since no one chose their parents, no one also had the chance to choose their gender at birth; also no one has the power to stop oneself from ageing. In the workplace, a lot of potential employees have been turned down on the grounds of being ”overaged”, a lot of which possess raw and unique talents that would transform organisations. Among those turned down on the ground of age, are people just about 1 – 5 years above the organisation’s benchmark. We should all be human. 


Besides, one more person sits on the edge of the table where age is dined – NYSC. Compulsory for every Nigerian graduate below the age of 30. How can people at 27 or 29 be unfit and unqualified to work for a firm, but be fit and qualified for national service? 

It is a call on policymakers and employers alike, to look into this subject of ageism in our recruitment process. Many are unemployed because of their age, not that they lack the skill and competence, but their age. After all, what is most important to firms is that they recruit individuals who will run with its vision and mission, and make a global masterpiece, this might necessarily have nothing to do with age.