Certificate or Achievement!? Since last week the channels TV sunrise daily show anchors bother themselves in search for the secret if any, about the PDP cry out for Buhari certificate to certify the electoral law conditions for contesting the office of Mr President. I was not bothered anyway since it is the language adopted in Nigerian politics this time ;mudslinging and defamation of character to woo the illiterate. Until yesterday when Barr Olisa Agbakoba SAN, activist and past president of Nigerian Bar Association was anchored. He surprised me alot because I hold the strong believe that as progressive he will say things frankly devoid of partisan politics and with high ethical standards. To my dismay he created more political and legal abracadabra than ever. As he claimed to have carried out a research on Buhari previous contest he became economical with the truth. That in his findings he discovered that Buhari didnt fill the form appropriately as required by electoral law this time around. Hummmm He is entitled to his opinion. Suffice it to say that vision of the framers of the Nigerian constitution is to ensure that we select the best available citizen to contest & become our president hence the logic and morality of the section 131 (d) 1999 constitution as follows : A person shall be qualified for election to the office of President if he has been educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent”. This makes school certificate the floor and nowhere in this world is the floor higher than the ceiling. Much as we believe that a good education might make a good person better, it is also true that great accomplishments are not a function of a chain of degrees. And our preference for those “cardboards” credentials society, may be the very albatross of this nation. Some of the world’s greatest achievers are men who never saw the four walls of a university or outright school drop-outs. We remember Britain’s war time Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who had a very poor academic record. He struggled through three independent schools before ending up at the Famous Harrow school. Today, Churchill stands out clearly as the greatest wartime leader that ever lived and the only British Prime Minister that has ever won the Nobel Prize for literature. Edwin Land, founder of the Polaroid Corporation, which eventually employed over 400 PhDs; The Microsoft Founder, Bill Gates who is one of the world’s richest men; and Oracle Founder, Larry Ellison, who is worth $28 billion; were all university drop-outs, Here, at our very backyard, Aliko Dangote barely went beyond the baccalaureate but today, he is easily the richest human in the entire African continent! In his conglomerate, he has many PhDs as truck drivers! Who, then, is the illiterate? This raised the question as to which level do we called someone literate or illiterate? We live witnesses to see great academics remaining good only in the academia or laboratory and library than in administrating human and materials resources practically. However well-schooled you may be if you can not practicalise your theory then you are only a scholar not good administrator. This does not mean that illiterate is preferable but by all standard any person who climb the ladder of achievement to become a General in Nigerian military can not be called illiterate. By extension to any sound mind, without prejudice, have leaving school certificate. Conclusively, leaving school is not a condition in this constitutional provision, it say at least leaving school certificate or its equivalent. Can you used your knowledge, unless if you are illiterate, to appreciate the fact that Buhari have certificate. Common dont make Nigeria a laughing stock. In society where we have graduates of economics that cannot drive a demand curve, achievements, integrity, incorruptible, and honesty is better as criteria.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 23:44:00 +0000
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