"SSCE holder can't be ruling us" - Rep proposes bill to raise qualification for president, governors -

The member representing Makurdi/Guma Federal Constituency, Benjamin Mzondu, has proposed a bill to raise the minimum qualification to contest for the post of president and governor.

The bill, which was introduced on the floor of the House of Representatives, passed First Reading at plenary on Thursday.

According to him, the bill seeks to alter Section 131 of the 1999 Constitution which requires candidates for the position of president and governor to have been “educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent”.

Mzondu added that the bill proposes a post-secondary school qualification for both positions.

“The constitution does not give an explicit qualification for the office of president.

“We want to define it properly. If it is secondary, it is; if it is university, it is. It is seeking to fill the gap.

“I am proposing (in the bill) that the president should have at least a diploma after secondary education. There should be a post-secondary school education that should be added,” TheCable quoted Mzondu as saying on Friday.

He was further quoted as saying that his bill proposes, in the absence of requisite academic qualifications, that a presidential candidate has “a post-secondary school experience of at least 20 years of working in the public sector”.