The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has identified lack of character among Nigeria’s political leaders as one of the major reasons the country continues to struggle despite producing highly educated citizens.
The SDP chairman made the observation while receiving the leadership of the Arewa Students Forum, which visited the party’s national headquarters in Abuja to honour him for his contributions to society.
He said Nigeria was not short of educated people, noting that the country was populated by politicians and public officials with impressive academic qualifications and titles, but that education without character had done little to transform governance.
“Character comes before learning. Learning without character is virtually nothing,” he declared.
According to him, the distinction between character and learning is crucial to understanding Nigeria’s leadership crisis, arguing that academic qualifications should not be mistaken for the capacity to govern responsibly.
He lamented that Nigerians have people with degrees, professors and retired professionals occupying important positions, yet the country continues to experience serious problems at the legislative, executive and other levels of governance.
“We have people with all the degrees, with all the titles, professors, retired this and retired that, and we are still behaving as if we didn’t go to school,” he said.
The SDP chairman said the problem was not necessarily a lack of knowledge but the failure to translate knowledge into integrity, selflessness and responsible leadership.
He recalled his experience as a student union leader, saying he remained particularly proud of that period of his life because of the opportunity it gave him to impact positively on the lives of fellow students.
According to him, student leaders of his generation engaged seriously with issues affecting their communities and were prepared to use their positions to fight for the welfare of others.
He challenged the current generation of students to learn from that tradition and understand that leadership should begin before they occupy political offices.
“Leadership of tomorrow is supposed to start as leaders of today,” he said, urging the students to embrace commitment, patriotism and selfless service.
He further told the students that the words traditionally attached to university degrees — that a graduate has been found worthy in **character and learning** — should not be treated as mere ceremonial language.
Rather, he said character must remain the foundation upon which education, leadership and public service are built.
“Character matters in the life of an individual, community or nation,” he said, stressing that the loss of character leaves a person with little value regardless of academic accomplishments.
The SDP chairman also urged the Arewa students to deploy their influence responsibly ahead of future elections, saying their responsibility was not simply to belong to political parties but to help Nigerians identify and elect leaders with the right combination of competence, character, capacity and patriotism.
He advised them to look beyond ethnicity, religion, region and party affiliation when choosing candidates, insisting that Nigeria could only be rescued when citizens deliberately choose leaders based on their antecedents and ability to serve.
He said young Nigerians should not wait until they become old before taking responsibility for the country’s future.
The chairman said the current generation had the opportunity to correct the mistakes of previous leaders and build a country where education is matched by character and political power is matched by accountability.
He therefore urged the students to remain hopeful and committed to Nigeria, insisting that the country could still be rescued through responsible leadership and active citizenship.