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Bill scales second reading
By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representatives in its further push for minimum educational qualification of certain political offices on Tuesday okayed a constitution alteration Bill through second reading level.
The Bill proposes to review upward to a minimum of University degree, the required educational qualification of some elective offices within the country.
The positions to be affected are President, Governorship of a state, membership of the National Assembly, and that of state Houses of Assembly.
Presenting the bill, the sponsor, Otunba Adewunmi Onanuga said
“Honourable Colleagues, all the political offices affected by this amendment are very strategic in their own right. The State legislators are important for making laws to govern the State in the interest of the people, the office of the Governor is the highest political office in the State. The Federal legislators are important for making laws in the interest of the nation, the Office of the President is the highest political office in the land.
“If a Managing Director who holds an equally strategic position in a company within this country, cannot be employed without a university degree or its equivalent, why should the above political offices be held by people without a university degree or its equivalent?”, the lawmaker argued as she presented the general principles of the bill before her colleagues.
According to her, if signed into law, the bill will among other things, place more value on education in our nation and its importance when considering politics.
“As we have begun to see, the race for elective offices at both State and national levels have become increasingly competitive. While this is good as a tenet of universal suffrage, it can also be counterproductive if people who are not sufficiently prepared educationally, get into these elective offices.
“This is not a Bill targeted at stifling the interest of Nigerians in politics, rather it is a Bill that will help Nigerians to sufficiently prepare for the humongous task of political leadership.
“We all know that after a university degree or its equivalent in this country, comes the compulsory National Youth Service Corp, without which it would be difficult to get into any employment especially within the Public Sector. Invariably, by leaving the qualification of this political offices to remain at School Certificate level, we are implying that the NYSC is not a requirement to hold political offices but it is a requirement to secure a job in the Public Sector.
“This Bill, will reflect the premium this 9th Assembly places on the quality of education that interests our youths vis-à-vis their desired political ambitions; and it will in turn affect the quality of candidates who run for elective offices in this country. Otherwise, how do we place value on education if I say to my son who wants to be a doctor that he needs a university degree or its equivalent to achieve his dream and then say to my daughter who wants to be a President someday that she only needs to have a School Certificate?”,
“Honourable Colleagues, I will like to conclude by stating that in this present day, studying up to a university degree anywhere in the world would have afforded any individual certain other knowledge, skills and preparedness that cannot be gotten at a School Certificate level. This is not say that only those with a University Degree can lead well, all we will be saying is that we will rather start from there; and I believe we can all agree that a university degree is a good place to benchmark the educational qualification into certain political offices. To agree otherwise will in the long run do our polity and youths a great disservice” she argued
