A bill seeking to bar secondary school leavers like President Muhammadu Buhari from becoming president or occupying other elective positions on Tuesday passed second reading in the House of Representatives. 

Sponsored by lawmaker Adewunmi Onanuga, the bill seeks to amend Sections 65, 106, 131 and 171 of the 1999 Constitution, increasing the educational qualification for elective positions in the country. 

During the debate, Mrs Onanuga argued that whoever wants to lead the country should possess more than secondary school certificate.

“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?” argued Mrs Onanuga. “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.”

Speaking at the 52nd convocation of the University of Lagos earlier in January, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said there was a need to increase the “minimum educational qualification for persons aspiring to be future presidents of Nigeria and other top offices, including the National Assembly as against the current minimum requirement of a Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent.”

Mr Buhari’s educational qualifications became a national issue during the 2015 election campaign, with concerns that he did not possess the minimum requirement to become Nigeria’s president.  

Though the West African Examinations Council eventually presented Mr Buhari with a WASSCE certificate in Abuja in 2018, his critics have continued to deride the school certificate as nothing more than a utility bill receipt.