Recently, the National Registration Bureau (NRB) issued a statement in which it warned Malawians against age cheating when renewing national identity (ID) cards. In a statement signed by NRB Principal Secretary Mak Sambo, the bureau said it had received requests from some individuals who want to change dates of birth on their IDs.
Most of the requests, according to NRB, are particularly coming from those seeking to secure employment opportunities with Malawi Defence Force, Malawi Police Service and other entities undertaking job recruitments.
According to NRB, the date of birth on national IDs is a restricted parameter which cannot be changed at the click of a button after an individual makes a request.
The National Registration Act of 2010 mandates NRB to protect all particulars in the national registration and identification system as presented by every citizen at the time of registration.
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Therefore, NRB has to be commended for swiftly issuing a statement condemning this malpractice. Ironically, the institution has been accused of registering under-age individuals. Whether there is some credence or not, such reports and fears have to be investigated and allayed with expediency before they create some credibility deficit for the bureau.
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Apparently, the development comes in the wake of growing pressure for job opportunities. Going by information in the public domain, most jobs are reserved for those who are yet to reach a certain age, something that leaves job seekers with no option but to seek ways of revising their birth dates downwards in order to increase their chances of getting employed.
Age cheating appears to be slowly but surely becoming a norm within our social fabric. Researchers on age cheating have attributed this to bad governance and economic hardships, exacerbated by the collapse of moral values in most African countries. It is not uncommon for citizens in most countries to use age cheating as a way out of unemployment, chronic poverty, economic and political deprivation, they argue. It is a form of corruption, especially in countries where information on birthdates is difficult to verity due to scanty records.
In football circles, for instance, falsification of age or use of false documents is common, if media reports are anything to go by. Footballers and their agents are reportedly helped by their respective countries to falsify their ages in order to look young so that they can secure lucrative deals with clubs in Europe and other emerging leagues in the United States and Asia. Age cheating has also been widely reported in youth-related tournaments where players deliberately choose to be ‘young’ for them to remain within the range of prescribed age for participation in a particular tournament. This has prompted sporting bodies to institute stringent measures to counter age cheating. For instance, in April 2023, ahead of the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), which took place in Algeria from April 29 to May 19, the Conferederation of African Football (Caf) instituted measures such as introduction of new rules for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests to fight against age fraud among participating teams.
On the other hand, in January 2024, on the eve of the 2024 Afcon in Ivory Coast, Caf summoned Gabonese international Guelor Kanga to clarify allegations being levelled against him on how he was born four years after his mother’s death.
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Furthermore, on February 13 2024, BBC Sport ran a report about age cheating in football, citing a case of Cameroonian player Joseph Minala. His Italian club maintained that he was 17 years, contrary to those who alleged that he was 41.
No wonder, former president of the Ghana Football Association once confessed to BBC that “It is quite common, in certain cases, when you ask a player about his age, for them to ask if you are asking about his “football age” or his “actual age”.
But why should I bother you with all this stuff? The reason is to illustrate the gravity of age cheating and that this is not a matter to be treated with kid gloves. Age cheating is a serious reputation matter . It is one of the emerging issues that need to be managed before they negatively affect the bureau’s image and reputation. Any iota of report or allegation on age cheating needs be investigated thoroughly. Also get to the bottom of the matter to examine underlying factors that might have triggered all this. I would not want to believe that, perhaps, those who sought to have their birth dates doctored had some insider information about possibilities of adjusting one’s age upward or downward.
When all is said and done, age cheating may not only be prevalent among job seekers; it may also be happening among those who are already in employment in order to ‘delay’ their retirement age. We surely have some people who are using ‘football age’ other than ‘actual age’. Until stringent measures are put in place to curb this, age cheating is here to stay.
By the way, what would be the findings if NRB decided to conduct a mass age verification exercise among all employees in both the public and private sector? Your guess is as good as mine.
