Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - TOO MUCH ADO ABOUT CERTIFICATE

Lincoln, as we all know, was one of the most brilliant presidents in American history. The emphasis here is on FORMAL education. Were he to have been a Nigerian of today, in the context of our constitution, there would be those taking issue with his inability to present primary or secondary school certificate. .I believe we have got to a stage in history when the ordinary voter should be able to distinguish between those who are thoroughly educated to lead and those who merely present certificates in order to justify eligibility. The truth of the matter is that  primary or secondary school certificate hardly qualifies one to engage in rigorous governmental activities, especially at the presidential.level. Since we are not going to ask prospective candidates to be Professors or Senior Advocates of Nigeria, we might as well leave the judgement of assessing candidate suitability to the voting public.
Many thanks for your comment,especially not reducing what is ordinarily an academic discussion to a pro-Buhari or anti-Atiku pettiness.
Akinola

On Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 9:43 AM Okechukwu Ukaga <ukaga001@umn.edu> wrote:
Anthony:
Lincoln was not as uneducated as suggested/implied here. Although he had very limited educational opportunities growing up, he managed to study law, took and passed the bar exam and practiced law, among other things.  
OU

On Oct 30, 2018 7:38 AM, "Anthony Akinola" <anthony.a.akinola@gmail.com> wrote:
  TOO MUCH ADO ABOUT CERTIFICATE

Voluminous constitutions are symptomatic of the distrust a people have about themselves. It is assumed that a people cannot be reasonable and patriotic,every rule governing their behaviour must be spelt out in black and white.This would seem to be the case in Nigeria,with its cumbersome constitution, where every rule of democratic governance  is assembled, albeit in confusing and contradictory wordings.

One knows of a nation that is governed without a written constitution. There is not a document that is called the British Constitution, democratic governance derives its legitimacy from customs and tradition. Yet, Britain is one of the most orderly geographical entities in the world-a nation that once superintended governance in many overseas colonies.

Even in the United States of America, the nation with the first written constitution , not everything is packed into the constitution. The American constitution is a very slim document, readable and easy to comprehend even by those with minimal education. There is no reference to political party in their constitution, and neither is their a requirement that the President must acquire a certain level of education. It is enough that a candidate for that position has attained the age of 35,and he or she is a natural born citizen of America, or a resident within the USA for a minimum of 14 years.

Much as the letters of any constitution must be respected, one honestly thinks that the requirement of education for President should no longer be generating controversy in a modern society. It should by now be taken for granted that whoever shall be President of Nigeria would be educated, otherwise the collective intelligence of the citizenry is insulted.Such a requirement should not be in the constitution.
.
Even then, it is the democratic right of the people to decide who their leader is. Paper qualification may not necessarily mean that one is politically-intelligent. Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest presidents of the USA, is said to have had only about a year of formal schooling of any kind. His successor, Andrew Johnson, is said to have had no formal schooling of any kind.

Lest one gets me wrong, one is not saying that education is not important and neither is one holding brief for any politician. What one is trying to assert is that there are things we must now take for granted in the 21st century. Even in our local communities, contemporary traditional rulers are well-educated and sophisticated individuals. Gone is the era when the traditional ruler was that kola-chewing individual, very eloquent at reciting incantations.

Anthony Akinola,
Oxford, UK.

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