A rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule
of Law (Intersociety) has called for the upgrade of the educational
qualification required for one to be a president or governor in Nigeria.
The group which recommended a Masters Degree for people seeking to
become governors or president in Nigeria said its proposition were as a
result of the recent judgement of the Presidential Election Petition
Tribunal which upheld President Muhammadu Buhari’s election in spite of
the call to question of his school certificate by his opponent, Alhaji
Atiku Abubakar.
The group in a press statement made available to this journalist on
Friday in Awka, Anambra state and signed by its chairman, board of
trustees, Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi said it amounted to racing back into the
cave to allow persons with no known educational background to govern the
country.
“It also amounts to racing back to the cave from being the Africa’s
cradle of knowledge for Nigeria’s seats of Presidential and
Gubernatorial powers to be cheaply and illiterately occupied by persons
without physically proven or certified educational certificates or
qualifications.
“It is further insulting beyond quantification to the modern day
knowledgeable world for the offices of the President and Governor in
Nigeria to be allowed to be occupied by persons with ordinary secondary
school or primary school certificates-whereas in other social climes,
such are occupied by professors and doctorate degree holders with
unassailable charisma.” It stated.
It noted said that it would be wise to raise the educational
qualification of governors and the president of the country if it must
develop alongside other countries of the world.
“It is, therefore, time to mandatorily, constitutionally and statutorily
raise the qualification for the seats of the President and Governor and
their deputies in Nigeria to nothing less than Master’s Degree.
“Ignorance and stark illiteracy must never be allowed a space over
knowledge and ideas in the country’s corridors of power. As a
jurisprudential tradition in the world over, judicial blunders and
disasters such as the instant case arising from apex and appellate
decided cases are periodically remedied by ways of constitutional
amendments or enactment of new laws to take care of such judicial
blunders or disasters.
“We hereby call on the National Assembly of Nigeria to act on the above
without further delays,” it said.