Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa tasks Nass on new education qualification for president

Lawyer and human rights activist, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has tasked the 9th National Assembly to as a matter of urgency, review the education qualification for would-be Nigerian presidents from its current secondary school to at least a First Degree with minimum of Diploma in Law or Diploma in Political Science.

This, he said, will help equip them with requisite capacity to pilot modern societies like Nigeria is growing into.

Adegboruwa was speaking in Benin City as a guest lecturer during the Law Week organised by the Benin Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, also tasked the members of the bar and civil society to always hold government accountable for breaches of the rule of law.

Speaking on Advancing the Nigerian democratic outlook: The Role of Law, Adegboruwa said: “There is the urgent need to tinker with the electoral laws and the Constitution, to firmly entrench the deployment of technology in the electoral process. Besides, it is a joke that in this 21st Century, all that is needed to be President of Nigeria is a school certificate or its equivalent. Lawmakers in the 9th Assembly must as a matter of urgency, initiate amendments in this regard to a minimum of a university degree with a minimum diploma in law or political science. This is to equip the leader with the requisite intellect to manage a modern society such as ours.”

He urged the Nigerian judiciary to “remain fearless and bold in holding governments accountable when it flouts the laws of the land. The court must assist the Nigerian people through innovative and inspiring judgments, in defence and advancement of the judiciary. “The Nigerian state must continue to build the capacities of democratic institutions through amendments of obsolete legislations, proper funding and appointment of competent officials to head such institutions.

“A vibrant bar, civil society and populace willing to hold government accountable for acts which undermine and jeopardize democracy. Lawyers must remain the obstacle to every dictatorship, rise up to protect the judiciary when under unprovoked attack and when the lawyers rise up, the judges must find courage to decide the law according to their conscience, no matter whose ox is gored, as happened in Kogi State recently, the maxim being, Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum, (let justice be done, though the heavens fall).”