Bemoans high unemployment rate
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
A senior lecturer at the Department of Science and Technology Education, Faculty of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Dr Marie Salami, has decried the process of early retirement of civil servants in Nigeria, describing it as a waste of wealth of experience.
The don called for a review of retirement age of public workers from 60 to 65 years for improved service.
Salami made the call recently in an exclusive interview with The POINT, stating that retiring workers so early was tantamount to throwing wealth of knowledge, skills and competences into the trash can.
She lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for sending an Executive Bill seeking to increase the retirement age for teachers across the country from 60 to 65 years to the Senate.
Noting that the bill also seeks to extend the years of service from 35 to 40, she said the review would help in curbing the tendency of teachers reducing their ages in a bid to extend their stay in active service.
Checks, she said, have shown that workers who retire at age 60 and 35 years in service are usually unwilling but forced to do so.
“The more the years spent on a job, the more you know the job. The more the experience you have would give room for correction and you would be able to give out your best. This is why our government should increase the retirement age because the current practice is not really helping productivity.”
“These youths migrate to other countries because those countries offer them jobs. They end up making the economy of foreign lands better at the detriment of our country”
Salami urged government to prioritise the employment of qualified candidates noting that the country had sufficient resources to cater for its citizens if well harnessed.
The lecturer explained that unemployment was responsible for the high rate of youth’s migration from the country in search of greener pastures.
“We are throwing competences and skills away; our young ones that we suffer to train, we donate them out free of charge to overseas countries that are already advanced.
“These youths migrate to other countries because those countries offer them jobs. They end up making the economy of foreign lands better at the detriment of our country,” she lamented.
