Uzoho And The Culture Of Stereotypes -By Kehinde Oluwatosin B.

Francis Uzoho

Over the years I have questioned the logic of interviewers/employers in restricting the eligibility for jobs to certain age brackets. My line of thought is simple “What is the importance of age when competence speaks?”.

Does an older person, who knows the job less qualify than a younger person? Is it not logic to know that having a full grasp of any knowledge comes with time of which time is the best expression of age and not numbers ? When does becoming old became a crime or being young a marker of excellence?.

Employers knows all these , but have often insisted on the path of age. The recent stereotyping of Nigerian young goal keeper Francis Uzoho an incident that has further reinforced my belief that the insistence on age by employers is just a cultural part of the Nigerian sociology, that ensures that she condemns what she doesn’t like.

Uzoho has been at the heart of needless bashing, some said his son is 17 and him 19, some said his face is too coarse to be 19, some sarcastically call him young. These are the kind of needless bashing this young man has received which to me reflects our knack as a people to often focus on the minor and the trivial at the expense of the major.

Even if uzoho is 40 he is in the world cup, that alone remains a personal record for him, he is recognized by global football governing bodies as 19, he has not conceded any goal due to the fact that he is 19 or made a safe because he’s probably 40 years of age, gradually his career has taken a form of face lift, yet Nigerians ignore their daily processes to vilify the progress of a young man. Una well done.

Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde is a prolific writer and public speaker.

Email: Kehindeobabatunde@gmail.com
Twitter : @_tqatq