BY BRIGHT JACOB
Prominent Nigerians have been expressing their opinions on the plan by the National Assembly to review upward the required education qualification for elective offices in Nigeria.
A bill that seeks to review upward the required educational qualification for elective offices in Nigeria has passed the second reading at the House of Representatives.
According to the sponsor of the bill, Adewumi Onanuga of the All Progressives Congress, the bill was being pushed so that more value could be placed on education.
Onanuga who is a member of the House of Representatives from Ogun State also stated during plenary in Abuja that the bill would promote the quality of elective leadership in the country, by galvanising qualified Nigerians with high education qualifications into action to join politics, and then seek elective offices.
The lawmaker also said if an employer (of labour) would refuse to employ without the requisite education requirement that should also be applicable to those who seek to govern us.
She added that such a step would impact favourably on the quality of candidates seeking political offices in the country.
Reacting, however, to the arguments raised by Onanuga, Tommy Etim Okon, the president of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, told The Point that the bill was diversionary and that qualifications do not equate to leadership skills.
“You see, those qualifications they’re talking about are just diversionary. When you look at Rwanda, for example, you talk about leadership,” Okon said.
Continuing, he said, “Qualification does not give anybody leadership skills, it’s only an added advantage. It’s expected that when you are educated, you can decipher, but there are people born with natural intelligence, and I believe that the legislators would have known this.
“Just look at what they have done with the Electoral Act. You brought issues concerning consensus candidacy (into the Electoral Act), something that has already been bastardized, and you think you can get the best out of that Act,” he remarked.
Okon further stated that it was not a bad idea to review the educational qualifications of those who seek elective offices. He, however, added that it doesn’t translate to better leadership.
“If they say they want to raise the qualification of those seeking the office of president to a university degree, it’s not a bad thing, but at the same time that does not convey leadership,” he concluded.
Earlier in the year, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, had advocated for a review of the current law which allows the minimum educational qualification for those aspiring for the office of the president and other elective positions, to be a senior secondary school certificate.
Gbajabiamila, who spoke during the 52nd convocation lecture of the University of Lagos, Akoka, said Section 131 (d) of the 1999 constitution which stipulates the minimum educational requirement for presidency, was not in tandem with present realities.
The Speaker was quoted to have said the following, “Experts cannot, on one hand, be talking about raising the standard of education in Nigeria and on the other hand requiring the barest minimum for those who will be governing us.
“As we have reduced the age for eligibility to contest those (elective) offices, so also, we should increase the minimum educational requirement. It will be another step in reforming our electoral system and providing strong leadership for the country.”
A medical practitioner, Sunday Shotiloye, shared the Speaker’s thoughts when he spoke with The Point.
When asked whether the approval of the bill would be the panacea to the nation’s woes, he said even if it would not be, it would still afford us the opportunity of producing the right person for the job, something we can’t do with someone having a minimum educational qualification or secondary school certificate.
