A Bill seeking to increase the minimum education qualification for office of President and other elective offices has passed second reading at the House of Representatives.
The proposed legislation is also seeking to make first degree or its equivalent the minimum qualification for governors and members of the State and National Assembly.
The bill, sponsored by Adewunmi Onanuga of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was introduced in the House last Tuesday.
Essentially, it seeks to alter Sections 65, 106, 131 and 177 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The aforementioned sections prescribe senior school certificate or its equivalent as minimum qualification for persons seeking to be elected as president, governors, national and state assembly members.
Onanuga, in her lead debate, said the bill, if passed into law would help to improve the quality of aspirants into the positions of president, governors, states’ and national assemblies.
She said studying up to a first degree level or its equivalent equips individuals with certain knowledge and skills required to grapple with the task of governance.
“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.
“The race for elective offices at both state and national level has become increasingly competitive. While this is good as a tenet of universal suffrage, it can also be counter-productive if people who are not sufficiently prepared educationally get into this elective offices. In this present day, studying up to a university degree anywhere in the world would have afforded any individual certain knowledge, skills and preparedness. A university degree is good place to benchmark the educational qualification into certain political offices. To agree otherwise, will in the long run do our polity and our youths a great disservice,”Onanuga said.
After the bill was passed for second reading, the deputy speaker, Idris Wase, who presided over yesterday’s plenary, referred it to the Special Ad-hoc Committee for the Review of the 1999 Constitution( as amended).