The Nigerian Senate says the minimum age requirement for admission into Universities in Nigeria remains 16 years.
This was made known by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Adeyemi Adaramodu, during a chat with newsmen yesterday.
According to him, any adjustment to the legal age limit for admission into universities in the country would require legislative action, which has not been taken.
The clarification from the Senate follows the earlier submission by the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, who said last week that the federal government is considering changing the minimum age for entering universities to 18 years old in order to curb underage admissions.
However, the Senate spokesperson said the statement of the Minister is merely a personal opinion.
Sen. Adaramodu said, “Comment on the minimum age requirement for admission is not a law. So it is just an opinion. It’s not a law. By the time the Senate resumes, whoever wants to bring that one out to make it a law, will now bring it and then the procedures will take place.
“You can bring whatever to the floor in form of a bill. When you bring it, there’s going to be public hearing.
“All the stakeholders will sit down and talk about it. The parents, teachers, legislators, civil society organisations, even foreign organisations.
“We will sit down and we talk. Even if they say that the minimum age should be 30 or 12 we will all discuss it at an open forum. So it’s still a comment which cannot be taken to be the law.”