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Quality Education (Certificate) Matters in High Stake Position

I wrote the epistle below in response to comments by some friends on the social media who said that you do not need certificates (college degrees) to be a successful leader of a country like Nigeria - I totally disagree. While I am a proponent of not letting your certificates determine who you are, not to give in to inferiority or superiority complex because you do not have a college degree, it does not extend to leading a complex organization or country like Nigeria. You need to be adequately prepared to succeed in a high-level position like the presidency of a complex country like Nigeria - we have a good example in the US. Please read with joy.

A good certificate or a quality education (not wishy-washy) "can" make a difference in a man where the yardstick for measuring success is clear. We cannot measure success in Nigeria because the apparatus is not available and the people don't even know what a successful government is because they have never experienced one. So, when they see a one-eyed man, they call him king in the land of the blind. From Bill Clinton (Oxford and Yale) to Bush junior (Yale and Harvard) to Obama (Columbia and Harvard), including Trump (University of Pennsylvania & Fordham), they all went to the best schools (Ivy League - these are among the top best 10 universities in the entire world) in the world. They were successful before they became president. They all have an outstanding or modest achievement in government, social work or business. How can a high school pass out stand and think he can lead a nation like Nigeria with outstanding success - IMPOSSIBLE!

What we celebrate in Nigeria is next to mediocrity. If the speech of some of our presidents (past and present) are analyzed, you will be ashamed of the level of intellectual deprivation they ensue. Higher education in the real sense of it molds you into an independent being that is able to contribute to the society through an understanding of your antecedents as a people, where you are from, where you are and where you should be. It helps you develop critical thinking ability.

Most of the Nigerian leaders, except for few like OBJ, know next to nothing about our history; they cannot articulate a philosophy of governance they pursue because they lack the mental preparedness for same. They tell stupid lies that can be easily dissected - like the lie Buhari told about Fulanis carrying sticks and not AK47 (we all know it is nothing but a lie) and that killer herdsmen are from Libya - these are stupid lies that an intelligent person will never venture into. Or some of the lies he told on May 29 this year about the achievement of his government. An educated leader will not fabricate success, even when he lies, you will try hard to catch him.

Education/certificate is not enough if you did not allow the process of getting that certificate influence you. Many people in Nigeria went to school and just passed out without learning anything. Then you want to measure the quality of education in our universities that ranks number 10,000 - 20,000 in the world. Do you want to compare what a student that went to McGill University in Canada or Brown University in the US will learn to what a student that went to even OAU or Ahmadu Bello will learn - it is like comparing death and sleep.

Can you now imagine a leader leading a country so complex as Nigeria with ordinary school certificate? He cannot be successful in the real sense of being successful. He would not have the skill set in planning, in negotiating, in motivating his team, in financial and fiscal prudence, in solving difficult problems, in fashioning a vision for his government, in driving his team, etc. This is what Nigeria lacks in Buhari - he cannot be successful beyond catching looters (he is a bloody old soldier, that is what he is best at), if anyone thinks otherwise, they are wasting their time. That is why we need to seek an alternative in 2019. We need educated, tested and capable people with an outstanding record of achievement in leading successful organization(s) with experience in solving social, economic, diversity, and infrastructural problems, etc. We need more than a goodwill leader - we need more than anti-corruption, we need real results. A leader that can take bold steps, fashion out ambitious economic plan, draw foreign investors, solve our ethnoreligious crises that drive away foreign investment, work in concert with the national assembly to fashion policies that will drive growth, etc. Secondary school certificate cannot help in these type of matter. Forget it - I speak from a position of knowledge.

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