Buhari’s certificate saga stirs fresh debate over  academic qualification for public office holders 

Nigerians have in last two weeks been buffeted with claims and counter-claims regarding the qualification or otherwise of Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, a retired General of the Nigerian Army, to vie for the office of the country’s president. Expectedly, the argument is expanding to the implication of the very poor academic requirements set by the Nigerian Constitution for those vying for high political offices, in comparison with what is needed to acquire employment in present day Nigeria. As ENO-ABASI SUNDAY and UJUNWA ATUEYI found out, stakeholders are decrying constitutional requirements and calling for ratification of the submission of the 2014 National Conference as it involves academic qualification of key political office holders. 

ON Monday, a Federal High Court sitting in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) fixed February 9, 2015 for mention and hearing of a suit that is seeking the disqualification of former Head of State and the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari, from contesting the February 14 election.

  In the suit with details: FHC/ABJ/CS/14/2015 filed by way of originating summons by Max Ozoaka, a legal practitioner based in the FCT, against the retired General and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the presiding judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, also ordered that Buhari be served the court documents ahead of the hearing.

   The Abuja-based lawyer also sought and secured an exparte order for the defendants to be served by substituted means, which includes notices in three national dailies. 

 Among other reliefs, Ozoaka’s counsel in the substantive suit, Ade Okeaya-Inneh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is also seeking “A declaration that by the combined provisions of Sections 31(1)(2) and (3) of the 2010 Electoral Act as amended and INEC Form CF 001, the 1st defendant is mandatorily obliged by the law to comply strictly with the provisions laid down under the Electoral Act as amended and INEC Form CF 001 as it relates to attaching evidence of the 1st defendant’s birth certificate and evidence of his educational qualifications as required under INEC Form CF 001;

  He is also seeking “A declaration that by the combined reading of Sections 31(1)(2) (3) and 31 (8) of the Electoral Act, the 1st and 2nd defendants are mandatorily obliged by law to comply strictly with the provisions laid down under the Electoral Act vis-a-vis the filing and submission of INEC Form CF 001, by the 1st defendant attaching evidence of educational qualifications as required under the said INEC Form CF 001 and that non compliance with this condition inherent amounts to an offence under Section 31(8) of the Electoral Act.

 Additionally, he is also seeking, “A declaration that the curriculum vitae and voters registration card attached by the 1st defendant in his INEC Form CF 001 and submitted to the 2nd defendant as a presidential candidate in 2015 general election is not in conformity with the form prescribed by the Electoral Act/INEC Form CF 001 and is manifestly in contravention of the said Act/INEC Form CF 001 and therefore null and void etc.

  In view of these and many other reliefs sought Ozoaka is also seeking “an order restraining the 2nd defendant from permitting the 1st defendant from participating in the presidential election fixed for 14th February, 2015 or any other date that the 2nd defendant may fix.

  While the legal battle persists, a groundswell of reactions have trailed the development, with the issue of the educational qualification of our political leader and how they affect their performances in office gaining immense currency. 

  In another breadth, questions are being asked in several quarters why the highest office in the land would demand for such nondescript educational qualification, while earning a decent job attracts a first degree or even a masters’ degree in the first instance, in most cases. 

  In yet another breadth, the sincerity of our political leaders is called to question as certificates scandals appears to have come to stay as an obnoxious odour, which must necessarily waft across the country at regular intervals.

 In the last two decades or thereabouts, Nigeria has not been in short supply of certificate scandals involving major political actors in the polity.  A peep into history readily throws up past episodes, which involved the likes of former Senate President, Evan/Evans Enwerem, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari, and that certificate fiasco, which involved the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu among others.

  While the General Buhari certificate saga festers, legal practitioners, academics, commentators and public affairs analysts are making their positions known on the academic qualification of elite politicians in the country.

  A commentator, Ejike John in his piece titled, “Higher Academic Qualifications for Higher Political Offices In Nigeria,” said, “Should the recommendation of delegates at the National Conference on the issue of academic qualification for public office holders be adopted, then politicians vying for the offices of the president, vice-presidents, governors, deputy governors, national and state Houses of Assembly and chairmen of local government councils will require a minimum of first-degree to contest, while councilors will require a minimum of secondary school certificate to also contest. 

  This decision is coming as a response to the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended), which allows low academic qualification for these offices. This decision couldn’t have come at a better time when the duties of these offices have become more challenging than ever.

  According to Ejike, “The request for a higher academic qualification for political aspirants is an improvement of the constitution, which does not state any academic qualification for the offices of the local government chairmen and councilors. Coupled with this, Sections 65 (2) (a), 106 (c) 131 (d), 177 (d) of the Nigerian constitution permits the President, vice-presidents, governors, deputy governors, national and state Houses of Assembly, to have a minimum of secondary school certificate or its equivalent before they can occupy the office.”

  He thanked delegates to the 2014 National Conference over the recommendation that requires that the academic qualification for these posts be raised to a higher standard so that those that aspire to high offices in the Nigerian political space would be educationally prepared for the task of delivering good governance. 

  According to him, “This recommendation by the National Confab provides a platform where Nigeria will provide better quality leaders to fill important positions of the government. Thinking about this, better leaders mean that people will better be represented and will have better access to dividends of democracy from all levels of government.”

  While blaming poor education for the reason “office holders perform below expectation,” he added that it also affects their policy decision-making. Politicians like these do not have the intellect to craft quality vision and mission for their offices. Some of them when observed closely have no idea of what governance and politics is in the first place. They are only blinded by their greed and desire to acquire and amass wealth and power for themselves.

  “Poorly-educated leaders are ill-informed and do not have the idea that politics is supposed to be used to offer selfless services to the people that they represent. Every year, hundreds of thousands of graduates are off-loaded into the labour market, we cannot say that among them we can find quality and well-informed people that can lead this country and take her to greater heights. This is the time to look inwards and we will find the right tools for the job that this country desires. There is no state in Nigeria that cannot boast of the manpower it requires to fill top government offices and to achieve her aims. The governance of the people is too serious a business to be left in the hands of illiterates and poorly educated people. It is this reason that politician see governance as a do or die affair, we don’t have people of right mind and intellects who sees politics as a means to serve. The absence of men of intellect and strong moral fiber in our country’s politics is one of the major problems in our country’s governance.”

  He continued, “It is very appalling to see that even some people that have little or no educational qualification have muzzled their way into top political offices, even when it is clear that they have nothing to offer the people they are representing. The challenges that comes with the 21st Century Nigeria, requires that top political offices be filled with men and women of honour, that are exposed and have not been found wanting in learning and character. Men and women of this nature cannot be found outside the league of those that have passed through a university or its equivalent.

  “As stated in the 1999 constitution, the educational benchmark for political office holders will not do well the socio-political development of Nigeria. It does not promote scholarship and knowledge. This country produces thousands of graduates yearly; this is more reason why the bar for the qualification for the offices of high strata needs to be raised if we are to see any meaningful change in the nearest future.

  For the Vice Chancellor, Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Osun State, MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect Prof. Sola Fajana, “Authors of the Nigerian Constitution put the minimum educational requirement for political office at school leaving certificate plus working experience. The intent of the Grundnorm is that basic level education would be sufficient for day-to-day operational communication in English Language. This was expedient at the time judging by the obvious regional differences in the exposure to Western education in Nigeria. Besides, the 1999 Constitution was only an update or revision of what the military inter alia imposed on the nation. The 1999 Constitution was not in any way autochthonous; that is, it was not truly given by “We the people.”  

  Fajana who is of the opinion that “the apparent gap that must have informed the imposition of a very low minimum no longer persist nationwide,” stressed that “future revision of the constitution should address this issue.”

  “A future review of the constitution is clearly desirable in harmony with global trends,” Fajana said adding that “serial development deficits that the nation is currently experiencing is paradoxically due to leadership insensitivity, corruption, and the rule of impunity in high places. It would appear that the higher the level of education of our leaders, the deeper these factors are unrepentantly recorded with serious deleterious effects on our pace of development.” 

 In the view of Vice Chancellor, Babcock University

Prof. J.A. Kayode Makinde, the acquisition of tertiary education by contemporary Nigeria political leaders is all-important because of the challenges, which governance presents in contemporary Nigeria. 

  “Tertiary-level education though non-exclusive of all other qualifications, is a sine qua non for leadership in any modern global nation, where the President is not just leading his people within the local national borders, but also as a cross-regional leader and as well as representing his people on the world scene. He or she is the same time equally the chief marketing officer, image-maker, negotiator, defender, and representative of his/her nation. It’s not just a question of an awesome tribal warlord or whose word is law to his people (that happens even or more especially in primitive societies) because no matter how inviolate his word might be to his people, it might be virtually worthless to the neighbours or global community with whom they trade, deal and interact with,” Makinde stated.

  The academic, who is also the president of the institution added, “It is my considered opinion therefore, that in addition to irreproachable integrity, publicly advertised curriculum vitae, assets declaration, and a nationally televised vision statement for the office, a tertiary educational qualification should be non-negotiable with other enforceable requirements in qualifying any candidate to even run for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

 Shedding some light on the implication of having barely educated people handle the reins politically, the erudite scholar said, “Knowledge is said to be the orderly acquisition of general and specialised information while wisdom is the application of that knowledge to specific and general situations. Education therefore, is not just the certification of knowledge acquired, but also the sum total of learning that refines the mind of an individual to a point of leadership empowerment on a career life path.  An African proverb has it that an Okra tree can never be taller than the farmer who planted it, or as adapted to other cultural climes, “you can never be taller than your head”. 

  Makinde who, however, noted “that a university degree does not absolutely guarantee the holder’s ability to successfully perform a specific career task or achieve a preset goal just like a muscular body build does not guarantee strength,” added that “while the cultural value system has gradually tipped over the edge of logic and rationality in the acquisition of titles and letters by even the least literate Nigerian “big man”, as a mark of social status and relevance, the critical need to define a bottom line of tertiary education for the nation’s highest office and vision dreamer and driver cannot be overemphasized.  

  “To achieve the required functional efficiency of institutional purpose in this knowledge-based global economy, Babcock University staff recruitment policy for employment at any level at all, is anchored on the prioritised conceptual tripod of: Competence, Character, and Commitment in that order. The job of the president of Africa’s most populous nation running the continent’s largest economy can no longer be left to the commercial purchase value of the highest bidder.

 According to President, Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS), Prof Oyewale Tomori, “A good political leader should be someone who knows how to bring a diverse group of people to live and work together in peace and unity. He/she must be someone the people can trust with their resources, a fair-minded person. While these attributes are required in other jobs, they are more important attributes for the job of a political leader.”

 He said, “I have checked the Nigeria Constitution and found that to qualify for election into the National Assembly (Section 65. (2) (A)) and to be the President (section 131. (D), such a person should have been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent. Of course, if the political leader is better educated than a school certificate holder, the better for the country. Given the level of education in Nigeria, you will be hard put to find enough candidates who will combine a high level of education with other desirable attributes of a “leader” of the people. 

    The regional virologist with the World Health Organisation (WHO), Africa region continued, “You require a high level of competence and distinctive expertise for a person to be a doctor, an engineer or an accountant, because these jobs require a high level of competence. The more complex the job, the higher the level of training. You cannot say that for the job of a president of a nation, which though complex, requires a different type of competence and expertise, a little different from “book” knowledge. 

  “The tragedy of Nigeria is that we have been led by the near illiterate and the highly educated, but each has missed the most crucial qualification for leadership – integrity, honesty, fair mindedness, generous person who has a compassionate and a caring spirit for the masses he/she serves. Give me a fairly educated person with these attributes and he can surround himself with the highly technical and competent people to run the government and our country will certainly be a better country.

 According to Lagos-based legal practitioner Aniebet Ebebe, “Generally, Section 313 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999), as amended lists four requirements that qualifies one to vie for the Office of the President. Section 131 of the constitution states that: “A person shall be qualified for election to the office if- He is a citizen of Nigeria by birth; he has attained the of 40 years; he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party, and he has been educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent.

  “In the context of the current certificate saga, my emphasis would be on the provision of section 131(d) of the constitution, that is- a person shall be qualified for election to the office of the president if “he has been educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent.” Section 318 of the 1999 Constitution (interpretative section) defines or interprets the phrase “school certificate or its equivalent to mean- a secondary school certificate or its equivalent or Grade II Teacher’s Certificate, the City and Guilds Certificate, or education up to secondary certificate level or primary six school leaving certificate or its equivalent. 

  “From the above provision of the constitution, it can be sadly deduced that the minimum qualification to vie for the post of the highest office of the land is just a primary six school leaving certificate.

    Ebebe added that, “This provision of the constitution is a slap on the Office of the President as it belittles and ridicules it. To get a decent job in today’s Nigeria, a candidate is expected to possess at least a first degree and other additional qualifications, to stand any chance at all. Now, is it not ridiculous and unspeakable to tell our children in this 21st century that the minimum qualification to vie for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is just a primary school leaving certificate or its equivalent. All these happening in a country of over 160 million people? 

  “The fact remains that we can never move forward to catch up with the rest of the world with this type of stale and outdated legislation in place. Even in private establishments, cleaners are expected to present better academic qualifications.”

  On how the low academic requirements prescribed by the Nigerian Constitution may hamper service delivery in public service, Ebebe said, “The fact remains that you cannot give what you don’t have and no one can put something on nothing and expect it to stand. Your level of education reflects on the quality of your thinking, reasoning, and development.  You will agree with me that Nigeria is one of the most blessed nations in the world. But one of the reasons that we are where we are is the rigidity and stagnancy of our constitution. So, I will not totally blame our past leaders, because it would be unfair expecting them to give what they did not have.