"Higher Educational Qualification For African Lawmakers Is A Must"

 

 

Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President, Nigeria, has suggested that African parliaments raise educational standards for their members to adequately respond to challenges. 
Ekweremadu spoke at the 14th Conference of Commonwealth speakers and presiding officers in Africa. The event was held in Mahe, the Republic of Seychelles.
The Senator said higher educational qualifications for lawmakers are now a necessity, after the long military rule had affected negatively the development of African legislatures.
"The theater of politics at the domestic and international levels is changing drastically. This has thrown up many complicated issues like terrorism, piracy, climate change and global warming, child trafficking, global economic recession, trade imbalance between the North and South, cyber-crimes, among others, which requires some form of intellectual sophistication to deal with," the Senator said.
"African Parliament must set higher standards of education for their members in order to adequately respond to these challenges. It is only logical to prescribe an Ordinary National Diploma or Associate Degree as minimum qualification for membership of individual African Parliaments to enhance the quality of debate and the product of parliamentary business."
According to Nigerian laws, the minimum requirement is a senior school certificate or its equivalent. However, findings revealed that over 96 percent of 109 senators, and 92 percent of the 360 members of the House of Representatives possess educational qualifications higher than the minimum requirements.
Mr. Ekweremadu commended many African Parliaments for the impressive pedigree of their members despite the absence of prescribed minimum educational qualifications in their laws.