The Leadership of Semi-literates has served the nation badly - Prof Nwabueze

Prof Ben Nwabueze noted that the current constitutional requirement amounts to a semi -literate president or governor; and stated that this has served the nation badly and has called for an amendment of the Constitution which would substitute a university degree for the first school leaving certificate currently prescribed as qualification for office holders.

  Nwabueze argued that the current group of leaders do not have the intellectual capacity to lead the nation - According to Nwabueze, the low educational qualification prescribed for elective political leaders has resulted in the relegation of intellectualism in government and politics in the country National Chairman of the Patriots and Igbo Leaders of Thought.

Professor Ben Nwabueze, has stated that semi-literacy is the bane of Nigeria’s leadership, and called for the review of qualifications for political office holders from the elementary school certificate to university degree or equivalent.

He also stated that there was no part of the country which had not produced several university graduates to represent them as governors, president or members of the state and National Assemblies these days. In his words: “Leadership is a critical part of Nigeria’s problem of governance because the educational qualification prescribed for our political leaders by section 131(d), as amended by the National Assembly in 2010, and section 318(1) of the Constitution does not equip them to be able to combine ideas and power; intellectualism and politics. “In these days of widespread ‘expo,’ certificate faking and general degeneration in the standards of education in our schools and colleges, primary six school leaving certificate prescribed by the Constitution for those seeking elective political office is really next door to illiteracy.

He said:

 “The effect of these provisions is, lamentably, to entrench in the Constitution the intellectual poverty and educational inadequacy which has characterised leadership at the level of the presidency since independence in 1960 right up to the election of President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007 (the first university graduate to hold the office of Executive President discounting the interim arrangement under which Chief Ernest Shonekan, a university graduate, ruled for four or so months) and the ascension to the presidential office by Vice-President Dr Goodluck Jonathan on May 5, 2010, after the death of Umaru Yar’Adua.

“A semi -literate president or governor is what the prescription tantamounts to. What little literacy is acquired from the educational system at the primary school level is soon lost owing to the lack of a reading culture that pervades our society, caused to a considerable extent by the enthronement of wealth as the determinant of social standing and the consequent inordinate pursuit of it and of other mundane, non-intellectual pursuits.

 Naij New report a statement made by Professor Ben Nwabueze; “No one with this kind of thoroughly inadequate educational background can be expected to read, with understanding, the Constitution of Nigeria, laden, and it is, with difficult and perplexing concepts, or the books on constitutional law, political science and sociology where the knowledge of these concepts can be found. “And knowing that he cannot understand them, he would have no inclination or disposition to buy the books or to read them. The desire to accommodate educationally backward areas, which no doubt is the reason underlying the provisions, is no justification for prescribing such low level of educational qualification for election to the office of president, state governor or member of the National Assembly. “There is no state in the country today that does not have a fair number of university graduates

 "The low educational qualification prescribed for elective political leaders has resulted, sadly, in the relegation of intellectualism in government and politics in the country. Intellectualism is concerned essentially with the notion of ideas, that is: the mental ability to comprehend ideas, and to reason or think them out. "An intellectual is a person engaged in creative and rational thinking about the world, about humanity, about human relationships, and about the governance of human society; he is a person dedicated to the study and understanding of ideas that govern and shape our world, society, the organism known as the state, and generally to intellectual pursuits and interests.

Don't forget to subscribe to our News Letter for More Update..................