 The House of Representatives has passed a bill seeking to raise the academic qualification for the seat of president of Nigeria, governor of a state and other elective public offices to university's degree or its equivalent for second reading. The bill was sponsored by Honourable Adiumi Onanuga, representing a Kene Shagamo-Rehmanof federal constituency in Oregon State. Leading the debate on the bill, Onanuga stated that the proposal, if it becomes law, would, among other things, place more value on education in the country. We are now being joined by Akan Imo, a public affairs analyst. Good evening, Mr. Imo. Good evening. Thanks for having me. All right, so what's your position on this bill being sponsored by Onanuga? I think it's a very little bill and I appreciate this bill because firstly it's going to, just as Honourable Adiumi Onanuga said, it's going to increase the value of education in the country. People are going to see that, they're going to see value in the education. Just right now, the value of education is very little in the country. You see, our youth saying that schools is tough and that schools cannot give them anything. They cannot give them anything with life. But when they see that to get to the highest level in the country in the land, you need to have proper education. It increases the value of education. Secondly, it's important to note that Nigeria is a good country. Nigeria has, we need to begin to run the country like a proper organization. So we need people who are fast-true followers of the schools who understand how to live. Not just people who dropped out of school or who have not got through formal education with us. So I think that this is a very notable bill and I stand in support of this bill. Okay. Are you satisfied with the degree certificate or would you even clamor for a higher qualification than that? I think that we can start with the degree certificate for now. We might not be able to jump. So I think we can start with the degree certificate for now. Do you think that this would lead to better governance in the country? Yes, I think so. I think it would lead to better governance in the country. I think it would lead to better governance. There are those who have described politics as a very dirty game and many of them would not have anything to do with politics, especially in Nigeria. Do you see this cleaning up the space and making it more attractive for a certain kind of people to join the free? Yes, definitely. I ran for office in 2019. I have one thing I realized is when people saw that I could come out and run for office, there was a group of people, the educated people like the ones who naturally would not want to have anything to do with politics. They came up and they supported my campaign. So when we have people who we can respect, people who have achieved both in the business world and the educational world, come out to run for office, it packs up a following of another set of people entirely. It makes politics less dirty as you come to know it. Do you see this bill scaling all the hurdles? Would it become law? That's the problem in our country. So we have beautiful ideas, but there's always a lack of political will to make that happen. I fear that this might not see the light of the day, but the optimist in me is hoping that it actually becomes law. Why do you have this fear? We've seen bills die. We saw what happened with the electoral bill. There are many bills, there are many beautiful bills that this past would have changed a lot in the country, but somehow it doesn't just survive. So it's a legit fear every Nigerian has when electoral processes like this are in the pipeline. All right, let me digress a little bit and take you back to when you contested. What did you contest for and where? Oh, I contested for a seat in the Lagos State House of Assembly in Ikerjab 2, Constituency, here in Lagos. And those who contested with you, what can you tell us their qualifications and what you experienced in the process? Yeah, the contest was just simple. Have an SSE, have an O-level and then you could contest the election. But I remember that my party was specific and during our primary, especially our presidential primary, they had a written examination. It made the news that this particular party had a written examination for their presidential candidate and it trended. It didn't make so much impact, but it was something that was a philosophy we stood by and we felt whoever is going to represent us must have the intellectual capacity to also stand for that office. All right. Well, I guess we just wait to see if it will become law. We hope so, we hope so. Thank you so much, I can't anymore for your time.