ONE of the reasons for the increasing cases of youth unemployment, particularly in the public sector in Nigeria, is the sit- tight disposition of many public servants, who engage in nefarious activities to perpetuate themselves in office.
Age falsification forms a veritable tool for these unscrupulous citizens in carrying out the reprehensible practice of remaining in service more than they are entitled to by rules or laws regulating public service.
It is a deliberate, fraudulent and calculated effort towards alteration or misrepresentation of the birth records aimed at reducing the age in order to secure selfish gain particularly unlawful elongation of stay in service.
This they successfully do through deposition on oath varying the dates of birth as many times as possible without anybody raising an eyebrow.
Apart from the civil service, age falsification has become endemic as it affects virtually all areas of human endeavor such as sports, politics, school admissions, just to mention a few.
For instance, it is no news that many applicants for enlistment into the armed forces or para-military service find it comfortable to scale down their ages through affidavits so as to be eligible for recruitment.
This is a clear manifestation of the endemic corruption that has sadly taken a firm and strangulating grip on the society. Regrettably, not much is done or deemed fit to surgically address the cankerworm ravaging the fabric and ethos of our nation.
Indeed, this worrisome conduct manifesting in age falsification has no doubt impacted negatively not only our social, political and economic advancement, but also dented the nation’s image as a cesspool of unmitigated dishonesty, culture of impunity with a penchant for recycling expended human resources rather than creating enabling ambience for fresh, youthful and energetic hands to contribute to national growth.
Little wonder, therefore, that today, mass youth unemployment, poor job delivery and other deficiencies still stare the nation and the public service in the face as youthful and dynamic input are grossly shut out from being injected into the system.
It is unconscionable, legally and morally wrong for these unscrupulous elements to deny the society of the services of younger brains in nation building.
More worrisome is that even the upcoming ones have either been tutored to embrace this fraudulent practice or have accepted it as a culture as many are now involved in the ignoble and obnoxious act of deliberate misrepresentation of their true dates of birth, all calculated to secure longer stay in public service.
In a nation where national data base remains a farce, the society is vulnerable to such ugly manipulations and scandals precipitated by age falsification.
For instance, some Nigerians are yet to embrace the culture of registration of birth and death. This creates a loophole for them to engage in perjury and persistently foist on the nation the agony that follows false and indiscriminate age declarations.
The coming on stream of the National Identity Management commission (NIMC) is yet to stamp a mark in providing the necessary national data base and control sufficient to counter age falsification.
In the face of this obvious inadequacy of NIMC, some state governments and employers of labour have devised means of tackling this virulent and parasitic phenomenon of age misrepresentation.
Delta State for instance, devised the means of examining the age at which civil servants started primary school to deduce their possible present age.
This has yielded some positive results as many workers who falsified their ages have since been shown the way out to make way for the younger and more productive generations. This is commendable and should be sustained.
Age falsification experts, agents and privies should know by now that the enormity of their disservice to the nation is devastating and cannot be justified under our laws.
Granted that citizens have right to make deposition of facts through the use of affidavits, but such statements are presumed to be correct since they are under oath. Such presumption is however not irrefutable.
Indeed, false statement on oath amounts to perjury which is a crime punishable with jail terms under our laws.
