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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Peter Obi, Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the 2023 elections, has said that while owning high educational credentials is not necessary for leadership success, a person must be honest and truthful about his or her qualifications to be a great leader.
The former governor of Anambra stated this during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday.
Obi argued that one did not need to have the best qualifications to be a leader, but to simply be honest about their background.
He said, “On the issue of qualification, I never said anything with regard to improving the degree or doing this. The issue of qualification is the issue of leaders making statements, and doing things that are honest and truthful. This is an issue of honour and integrity. It is the foundation on which you build society.
“If you look at what is happening in Nigeria today, there are so many issues of certification, age, all sorts of, one falsification or the other, all over within the leaders. There is no way people can be doing this and be able to do the right things because that means they are living a falsified life, and that is not good morally and a sign it should be giving to the society.”
The LP standard bearer then gave the instances of a number of famous world leaders and innovators who went on to accomplish amazing things that altered the world despite having poor educational backgrounds, no formal schooling, or even being school dropouts.
“You don’t necessarily need to have all the degrees in the world to be great, but you need to be honourable about your past so we can know where exactly you are and everything. The world abounds by great people who have a poor past and no education, and that formed part of their greatness,” he noted.
Reacting to whether he would be willing to work with President Bola Tinubu’s administration to help with nation-building, he said: “We are at a point where we are challenging the process, these are part of what makes a nation. The process through which people come into office or assume or achieve anything is far more fundamental than what they do thereafter. It is important that people come through the right door and not just jump in through the window.
“As far as I am concerned, again, when it comes to the issue of working, even opposition is part of building the process of having the proper government. What is important is that we challenge the process through which this government came into being, and that challenge is still there.”
