FCT Council Election: Candidates’ Low Level Of Education May Hamper Quality Leadership – Experts

Experts have questioned the quality of candidates that have been fielded by political parties to contest the February 12 Federal Capital Territory council election.

They are of the view that the level of education leaders possess impact on the quality of leadership, and stressed that it was disappointing that the FCT, which is the seat of power, would have leaders with low educational qualifications.

THE WHISTLER’s  findings showed that qualifications submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, by over 400 candidates seeking for Chairmanship, vice chairmanship and councillorship positions are predominantly secondary school certificates, with less than five having higher certificates.

For instance, out of the seven chairmanship candidates fielded by seven political parties for the Abaji Area Council, none possessed a higher degree.

All either  possessed the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) or the National Examination Council(NECO), which are prerequisite qualifications for higher education.

The candidates seeking the position of vice chairman in the same council also do not have any qualifications order than the SSCE or NECO, with some having the Grade 11 Teachers’ Certificate.

Out of the four political parties that fielded candidates seeking to be councillors in the 10 wards under Abaji, only the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP,  for Abaji North East, Mr Luqman Aliu Jubril, holds a Bachelor of Science degree.

The Abuja Municipal Area Council, which is where the Presidency, National Assembly, Judiciary, Federal Government and FCT secretariats are located, is not shielded from the menace of low educational attainment.

None of the frontline parties has fielded candidates with higher certificates. The candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Mr Murtala Usman, holds an SSCE certificate while the candidate of the PDP, Mr Christopher Zakka, also holds SSCE certificate.

It is the same for Abaji where the APC chairmanship candidate, Mr Umar Abubakar Abdullahi, holds SSCE, but his PDP counterpart, Mr Yahaya Garba, has the National Certificate in Education(NCE).

Only candidates of fringe parties like the Action Alliance, African Action Congress, African Democratic Congress, Action Democratic Party and Allied Peoples Movement possessed qualifications above SSCE.

For instance, the candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement,Mr Bayero Ibrahim,  holds a B.Ed while his vice, Ms Oyibo Okpe, holds LL.B and B.L.

The situation is not different for Gwagwalada Area Council where the two leading candidates—APC’s Jubrin Abubakar and PDP’s Muhammed Kazim—both  hold the Grade 2 Certificates.

For the Bwari Area Council, PDP’s  John Shekwogaza holds the Higher National Diploma while his major challenger, Audi Shekwolo of the APC ,  holds the SSCE.

In Kwali Area Council, APC’s Sunday Danladi holds SSCE certificate while PDP’s Haruna Muhammed holds the GCE.

With majority of the candidates holding either Grade 2, SSCE, WAEC or WASCE certificates, leadership and development experts say it’s a poor situation that will negatively impact on the quality of leadership at the councils in the Nation’s capital.

Dr Sunday Okorie, the Managing Director of Schutmann, a leadership think-tank, told THE WHISTLER that, no quality of leadership can be engendered “by people who don’t possess the needed Knowledge on the relationship between good education and leadership.

“Specifically, today’s world is knowledge driven. Leadership across the world is now driven by people with educational power and skill to engender not only policies but progressive and realistic polices to drive their countries.

“Governance is now science but science of policies by which leaders churn out policies and programmes to drive the economy; to stimulate citizens’ thinking; to create enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.

“In fact, most advanced countries now have competitive public sectors that compete with the private sector in science of leadership and management.

“But you have a Chairman of a local government or council or a state governor or a whole lawmaker with SSCE, what are they going to do?

“How do you for instance subject a whole law making process of a big country like Nigeria with plethora of educated men and women who can compete with the best brains in all sectors in the world to an SSCE holder? What law would he make? How can he justify anything? Does he know the intricacies and nexus of law making and development?

“I support the bill in the national assembly. Let’s start from there even though possessing a degree is not an assurance of good leadership but it’s a good start. I enjoin them to pass the law,” he said.

He expressed shock at the caliber of those seeking to lead councils in the FCT, adding that it is part of the problem of the reward system of politics.

“It’s a reward system. That’s how political parties reward those with force not with ideas.

“These ones certainly cannot drive the needed changes in FCT,” he said.

According to Mr Tony Olawole, a graduate of Said Business School, a think tank of the Oxford University, “Nigeria will continue to retrogress if leaders without minimum qualifications of at least University degree or its equivalent are not elected or appointed into power.

“Leaders should have acquired the necessary education to make them think and act in progressive manner,” said Olawole, whose OxLeadership is tailored after Oxford University Leadership School.

He explained that OxLeadership is two years old in Nigeria and aimed to be a source of creating leaders to change the country’s leadership narrative.

“We can be a source of recruitment. We can also coach and train leaders.

“But they have to have the minimum qualification which today is a degree first. Check the quality of graduates today and then you will know possessing senior school certificate makes the whole situation worse.

“No holder of SSCE today can make informed decision. That’s why we have bad leadership. For FCT to have this kind of candidates show how bad the country is,” he said.

Underscoring the need to arrest the situation which also prevails at the state and federal levels of government,  a bill currently in the House of Representatives seeks to alter Sections 65, 106, 131 and 177 of the Nigerian 1999 constitution, to provide for mandatory possession of degrees by presidential, governorship or parliamentary candidates.

Candidates seeking election into these offices currently jonly need a minimum of the  SSCE certificate or its equivalent.

But the sponsor of the bill, Mr Adewunmi Onanuga, a lawmaker from Ogun state, clarified that, it’s 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.”

She argued that, “As we have begun to see, the race for elective offices at both state and national levels have become increasingly competitive. While this is good as a tenet of universal suffrage, it can also be counterproductive if people who are not sufficiently prepared educationally, get into these elective offices.

“If a managing director who holds an equally strategic position in a company within this country, cannot be employed without a university degree or its equivalent, why should the above political offices be held by people without a university degree or its equivalent?

“We all know that after a university degree or its equivalent in this country, comes the compulsory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), without which it would be difficult to get into any employment especially within the public sector.

“Invariably, by leaving the qualification of these political offices to remain at school certificate level, we are implying that the NYSC is not a requirement to hold political offices but it is a requirement to secure a job in the public sector.

“Otherwise, how do we place value on education if I say to my son who wants to be a doctor that he needs a university degree or its equivalent to achieve his dream and then say to my daughter who wants to be a president someday that she only needs to have a school certificate?”