Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, on Saturday advised Nigerians to stop electing leaders without education into public offices.
He said Nigerians in the past had elected or chosen to elect leaders who had no education and thus could not give an education when they were elected.
The former Central Bank of Nigeria governor spoke at the 6th convocation ceremony of Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja, where he was conferred an Honorary Degree of Science along side the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III.
He said: “We have to take an interest in the quality of our leaders and representatives in the level of education. If you look around this country at many levels of leadership, we have elected and we have chosen to elect people who do not have an education. And because they are not educated, they cannot give an education.
“We need to lay more emphasis on the quality of people we elect to executive and legislative offices and we need to make sure that those to whom we entrust policy are themselves educated and know the value of education.”
The Emir also advised the Federal Government to invest the trillions of naira it was spending on subsidising petroleum products on educating the young ones in the country.
According to him, the money spent on building roads, bridges and trains should first be used to educating the young ones, noting that development was first and foremost about people.
Sanusi said: “Let us invest more in education and let us give up some of the privileges that we have such as the trillions we are spending subsiding petroleum products. That money should go into educating our young people.
“We are spending too much monies on roads and bridges and trains and too little money educating our children. Let us educate these young people and they will build the roads, train and bridges. We do not need to invite the Chinese to do that for us. And until the leadership at all levels in this country and the followership understand that this is what is most important, because I do understand sometimes that if a governor does not build roads or bridges, he is seen as not have been performed by the people.
“We build all these highways and there are more pedestrians on the highways than cars and those pedestrians are most often people without education and help. Development is first and foremost about people.”
He also blamed northern leaders for failing to provide the enabling environment for children in north to attend schools.
Earlier in his remarks, Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Huseyin Sert, said 21 students were awarded First Class degree out of the 365 graduands.
He said: “In this 2017/2018 session, we are glad to celebrate our 6th convocation ceremony with a total number of 365 graduands made up of 21 first class honours, 67 Second Class Upper, 96 Second Class Lower and two Third Class.
“Indeed, the turnover of graduands from the university has justified our vision and mission statement of producing quality graduates who shall be full of knowledge, skills and experience to contribute to technological and economic development nationally and internationally.
“The university expresses its gratitude to all those that contributed to the success of this occasion which enabled us to actualise our dream of being one of the best tertiary institutions in the world. We particularly felicitate with both graduating students and their parents for their high sense of duty and commitment in making their stay in the university a fruitful one.”
Also, the Alaafin of Oyo commended the institution for the award, saying that it will spur him to do more for society.
