Of educational qualifications for presidency and other matters

Femi Gbajabiamila, the speaker of the Nigerian house of representatives, stirred the hornets’ nest recently when he revealed that he believes that the educational qualifications required of presidential hopefuls in the country are due a review by the national assembly.

The speaker made the revelation when he was speaking at the University of Lagos’ 52nd convocation lecture where he was a guest lecturer.

He stated that he believes the review of qualifications is the next logical step to improve the quality of candidates that are campaigning for the country’s leadership seat.

In his speech, Gbajabiamila stressed that the current level of educational qualifications required of presidential aspirants through the 1999 constitution which demands only a secondary school certificate of the candidates is the product of a different time and reality.

My thoughts about this; I completely agree with the speaker. I keep wondering why a country with some of the best brains in the world will peg the barest minimum education for the presidency of the country. The thing is you don’t even need to pass your WAEC, just an attempt at the exams is enough. This is unacceptable.

Why will we make the requirement of the presidency so basal that never-do-wells will contest for it? The presidency of the country is serious business and is not for clowns and jokers.

We need the best among us to rule and we should raise the educational requirements. Simple.

Again, having the best certificates is not a guarantee of good leadership. In Nigeria, it takes more than that. Nigerians are peculiar people. Your Ivy League certificates will count for nothing in Nigeria. Bring the best Harvard graduate in economics to come and rule Nigeria and I can bet my money, he will flop.

We have seen people come to Nigeria with the best certificates only to be messed up by the system.

For you to succeed in Nigeria, you need to have native intelligence combined with your educational qualifications. We have seen governors lose elections because according to the voters, “he too dey speak English”. In Nigeria, we know what that means.

Again this brings me to the number of people who have declared for the presidency of Nigeria.

I have consistently maintained that one person alone cannot change the country. We need to start having quality people from the local government, state, and federal lawmakers and governors.

But in my country, everyone wants to be president and they know in their hearts of hearts they cannot win. Why not go for the senate or the governorship of their states? We need to cleanse the system from bottom to top. By the time we have people with capacity and integrity at all levels, it will be easier to change the system.

Sadly, people whose only structure is on Facebook want to contest for the presidency of the country. The Nigerian presidency is now a joke.

This brings me to another topic. One of the saddest and most heartbreaking stories you will ever read is that of 5-year-old  Hanifa Abubakar who was kidnapped and killed by her teacher after the family had paid a ransom of 6 million naira.

This case is very simple. They have confessed to the crime. This court case should not take more than a week. The culprits should be sentenced to death. They don’t deserve to live and the state government should be bold enough to sign the death penalty. This is the right thing to do.