Politicians Are Undereducated, Says Utomi
By Funmi Ogundare, 07.28.2010

Lagos

A former presidential aspirant and the Director of Pan African University, Ajah, Lagos, Prof. Pat Utomi has said Nigeria would not achieve any progress, but will continue to witness the present anomaly if its crop of politicians are not properly educated. Utomi, who made this remark, at the 12th Valedictory Service/Prize Giving Day of Good Shephard Schools, Meiran, Lagos, described Nigerian politicians as under-informed, selfish and obsessed with money, adding that they are more interested in the contract that will be awarded rather than focusing on what they ought to do that would benefit the populace.

His words: "Politicians are so interested in the contract that will be awarded that they don't focus on the real person. Until this selfishness, obsession of money, this failure of our elite in the political class to disclose the mission of their generation, is corrected.  "I am afraid Nigerians are in serious trouble. I think this is why we need to educate the Nigerian politicians because they are highly undereducated and under informed as to what their missions should be, many do not realise what education is for, that is why we are not making progress."

SOURCE: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=179375

What PU is saying is true, the damn lot are bloody Illiterates.

I can't even trust the education system in Nigeria to be honest. It is quite substandard compared to the education system found in other African nations such as in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.

He is right

P U was simply being diplomatic and civilised. If i am to judge, they are ignorant and foolish. Period

And the overeducated ones can't be politicians

Education where lectures have to fu-ck students to give them good grades,isn't it crazy?

What nigerians need are the revaluation of common sense,instincts and what constitute human dignity

True talk!
Education in Nigeria is merely the acquisition of papers certificates to boost ego. Attend any occasion where the CV of any dignitary is recited. It will be so rich and edifying but alas, you will wonder why such a man in leadership position still performs woefully, looting anything lootable in his custody.

Again, as a characteristic, most Nigerians who wear the most expensive wrist-watches attend functions late. They arrive flaunting the goddamn wrist-watches to show-off. I'm suggesting that anybody with expensive wrist-watch who arrives late for a function should have his/her wrist-watch seized.

They have passed through education but education has not passed through them.

As my gran dad used to say, "passing six is not passing sense" which means that although in their own days you may have passed elementary six which was a big honour in their days, it does not mean that you have common sense.

This is very right in the cases of our so called leaders. I met one of them at a function and when he was asked to make a speech he said i do not like speeches but i will try. The truth is that it is not speeches that he does not like making but he simply can't speak the grammar. Nigeria will survive. The only thing is that many of us may have gone by the time this is all sorted. God bless Nigeria.

Of what use is PhD in politics?
A political thief does not start when he got his position, he started in school.

Politics goes beyond under or over education, more of an individual's willpower to do the right thing

Surely you must know how that happened. You don't? One word: IBB. He really "transformed" Nigeria during with his various ill-fated experiments.

EzeUche:

I can't even trust the education system in Nigeria to be honest. It is quite substandard compared to the education system found in other African nations such as in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.

I really do not trust the Nigerian education system to be honest. Our founding fathers were trained in the West and they were quite educated. Awolowo and Azikiwe had the foresight. I think Nigerians who want to be taken seriously should get their education abroad.

If a person went to Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Princeton, Cambridge, Cornell, Brown, University of Penn, NYU, or Columbia University, they should be given the highest respect and high positions. Nigerian education system has failed the youth.