Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said that it was high time Nigeria increased the minimum educational qualification for those aspiring to hold certain political offices.

According to Gbajabiamila, aspirants for the position of president, state governors as well as members of the National Assembly in the country must attain certain academic heights.

He said the current provision of the constitution, which stipulates secondary school certificate or its equivalent as a minimum educational requirement was old and not in line with the trends of the 21st century.

Gbajabiamila stated this while delivering the 52nd Convocation Lecture of the University of Lagos on Monday.

Though he did not mention a specific academic qualification, the Speaker explained that just as the National Assembly successfully reduced the eligible age for political offices in the country ahead of the 2019 general elections, lawmakers would need to review upward the mandatory academic qualification for persons aspiring to those offices.

He stated that this would be another step towards electoral system reform and production of quality leadership in the country.

On conversations around the adoption of direct primaries by political parties to choose their candidates, Gbajabiamila said he was optimistic that such policy would certainly increase greater participation in leadership recruitment process.

Speaking on tertiary education in Nigeria, the speaker said there were lots of reforms needed to ensure universities produced qualified and competent manpower as well as a reservoir of quality researches and innovations that would help solve societal problems and put Nigeria in the comity of prosperous countries.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.