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Vol.4, No.23, 2014

Richards S. Peters’ Concept of Education and the Educated Man:

Implications for Leadership Recruitment in Nigeria
Gabriel Ekwueme ELECHI (Ph.D)
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS AND MANAGEMENT RIVERS STATE
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA
E-Mail ekwuemeelechi@yahoo.com
Abstract
This paper examines Richards S. Peter’s concept of education and the educated man as a template for leadership
recruitment in Nigeria. The purpose is to determine the extent to which ascension into political leadership
positions in Nigeria conforms to such conception especially against the background of the general belief that
greatness of a nation is a product of its educational attainment. However, the paper through content analyses
observes that political leadership in Nigeria from independence up to the present has fallen short of the criteria of
education and the marks of an educated man. Hence, the manifest relegation of the concept and what it stands
for. The paper concludes that the observance of these criteria in breach rather than in compliance inadvertently
foregrounds godfatherism in political participation while serving as precursor to the various absurdities
confronting the country. To achieve the objectives of this paper, it is hereby recommended that leadership
recruitment is a challenge and should be for the truly educated as prescribed by R. S. Peters.
Keywords: Richards S. Peters, Education, Educated Man, Leadership, Nigeria.

Introduction
As philosophers of education take interest in analyzing concepts that have relevance to education, they
have also recognized the fact that education itself needs clarification and application. Analyzing and applying the
concept of education is the pre-eminent point of all analysis of educational concepts because determining
concepts that are connected to it that need clarification would be almost impossible in the absence of such a task.
In the effort to analyse the concept of education, Richard S. Peters has been at the front burner. In the opening
paragraph of his edited book The Concept of Education, he pointed out that in exploring the concept of
education, a territory is being entered where there are few signposts. It is not surprising, therefore, that “in
presenting at the start what amounts to a bird’s eye view of the contours of this territory, I have to rely on my
own previous attempt (Peters 1967). Peters has in a consistent manner tried to sharpen his ideas of the concept in
several of his writings following his Famous (1963) inaugural lecture on “Education as initiation”.
As a tribute to Peters, all serious attempts to analyse the concept of education since his initial effort
have been footnotes to his ideas (Enoh 2002). The same line of thought shall suffice here. The first part of the
task shall be to render what may be rightly referred to as his concept of education and the educated man. In the
second part, some attempts shall be made to determine the extent to which leadership recruitment in Nigeria
meets those criteria and the implications of such standard or otherwise on governance. Out of the numerous
books on which Peters has attempted to analyse the concept, only two will be used here. These are chapter One
of his Ethics and Education (1966) and “what is an educational process” the chapter he contributed in his edited
book, the concept of education (1977). References will also be made to other relevant works of his as they
become necessary.

Peters’ Criteria of Education and being educated

Peters would refrain from any attempt to define education apparently because of the difficultly in
encompassing all that education involves in one definition. Asserting that the word education has normative
implication, he proposes instead, three criteria against which to match the processes of education for fitness. Any
process that does not satisfy these criteria, will not be called education and cannot result in the production of an
educated man. The criteria are that:
i. education implies the transmission of what is worthwhile to those who become committed to it;
ii. education must involve knowledge and understanding and some kind of cognitive perspective, which
are not inert;
iii. education at least rules out some procedures of transmission, on the grounds that they lack willingness
and voluntariness on the part of the learner (Peters 1966:25,31, 45).
The above three criteria can conveniently be expanded to four without missing any of the ingredients
espoused therefrom. These are:
a. The value or normative criterion
b. Knowledge and understanding criterion

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c. The cognitive criterion

d. Mode of transmission criterion.

Discussion on the Normative /Value Criterion

Peters, applying Gilbert Ryle’s (1952) distinction between “task” words and “achievement” words
identifies education as an achievement word. According to him, a man who is educated is a man who has
succeeded in relation to certain tasks on which he and his teacher has been engaged for a considerable period of
time (Peters 1966). Thus, the concept of education or being educated has the criterion of value built into such
that when we talk of a man being educated, there is the implication that what he has achieved is worthwhile. In
Peters view, the connection between “being educated” and having something that is worthwhile is purely
conceptual-meaning that if we deny the worthwhileness of an activity, we are logically bound to deny referring
to that activity as being educational (Enoh 2002: 29) Peters sums up his views thus: education implies the
transmission of what is worthwhile to
- those who become committed to it;
- an educated man is one whose form of life as exhibited in his conduct, the activities to which he is
committed, his judgment and feeling is thought to be desirable;
- it is true that people differ in their estimate of desirability in respect of achievements and states of mind
that can be thought of as desirable, all that is implied is a commitment to what is thought valuable
(Peters 1966:25, 45, 1972:9).
What is uppermost in this criterion is the commitment of the learners to the course that would lead to
the achievement of what is desirable. In the Nigerian context, one may be constrained to ask to what extent are
the political leaders committed to the demand of their offices?. The analysis of Ray Ekpu in Newswatch
magazine needs paraphrasing here to illuminate the issue. Sir Abubaka Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first prime
minister was pushed by Ahmadu Bello to come to Lagos while he tended the shop in Kaduna. Alhaji Shehu
Shagari in the Second Republic who emerged as the compromise candidate of the National Party of Nigeria
(NRN) in 1979 was honest to have admitted that all he ever aspired for was to be a senator but unpatriotic forces
catapulted him to president. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was still in prison when the godfathers pulled him out of
the dungeon and put the crown on his head amidst a mild protest. The same familiar terrain was followed in the
case of late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua who was foisted on Nigerians by Obasanjo after he had dusted his
books to return to the classroom. Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on his part was just adjusting his seat as the
governor of Bayelsa State when Obansajo called him to higher duties as vice-president to Yar’adua. Giving the
failing health and eventual death of the latter, luck smiled on the former who eventually became what he was not
prepared for-president. The same is true of other political office holders in Nigeria (Ekpu 2010:13).
The truth emanating from the foregoing analysis is that none of our elected leaders spent years
dreaming, studying, working , researching and networking in readiness for the top job. Is it surprising that they
could not have become peak performers as they obeyed the values defined by the society in the constitution more
in breach than in compliance? Such constitutional values as justice, equality, human right, common welfare,
human security sovereignty of the people, growth and development that make a state strong and capable do not
mean anything to them. Little wonder Adeyeye (2010) described Nigerian politics thus:
Our politics is depressingly primitive. Its leading men are thugs made good, former drug
barons, retired fraudsters, unrepentant age-cheats, occasional murderers and irredeemable
pen robbers. It hosts only a sprinkling of good men (Punch Newspaper Sept 28 back page).
It is, to say the least, regrettable that no Nigerian leader has shown evidence that having studied, read
about the world, he or she has decided to seek power as a means of enforcing principles and belief. They have as
a result stumbled into power by accident than by design. They hardly speak from conviction, deep understanding
of issues, experience and patriotism. Unfortunately, Obafemi Awolowo, the man who spent a high time courting
the job, and was obviously prepared for it, never got it.

Knowledge and Understanding Criterion

Peters (1972) advances a number of conditions which must be satisfied before one can be called an
educated man. For instance, he insists that education does not consist in the mere acquisition of disjointed fact,
knowledge and skills, but that such facts, knowledge and skills should be properly understood and clearly
explained whenever the need arises. He should demonstrate that what he has acquired is not merely intellectual
but can transform the way the individual perceives and does things. Implicitly, the educated is expected to posses
the know-how, know-that and the ability to arrange experiences (Peters 1966:30). Possessing a conceptual
scheme involves the capacity to make distinction between different objects or things, or to classify them on the
basis of some unifying factor or principle.

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Also the attitudinal aspect requires that the knowledge acquired must not be inert in two ways. Firstly, it
must transform the individual’s outlook. Secondly, it must improve some form of knowledge on the part of the
individual who acquired the knowledge (Peters 1966:31). This attitudinal transformation can be regarded as
representing “Good” in education which implies increase in human knowledge, consciousness and
understanding. These goods, Babarinde (2000) regards as “cognitive goods” which must be demonstrated so that
they will not be inert in him. Peters argues that we should refrain from calling anyone educated until he shows
proof that what he claims to know and understand affects his ways of looking at things.
Corroborating Peters criterion Randall as cited by Ekpu (2010:10) demands
…the leader must know, must know that he knows and must be able to make it abundantly
clear to those about him that he knows.
The 1999 Nigeria constitution provides in section 131, four qualifications for the office of president
- He must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth
- He must attain the age of 40 years
- He must be a member of a political party and sponsored by that political party.
- He must be educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent.
The first three qualifications should not bother us here. No first school certificate holder today can be made a
managing director of a bank or a manager of a high grade restaurant in Nigeria. Is it not an irony that we should
have school certificate as the qualification for the most important office in the land at a time of great complexity
in world affairs? If our entry qualification is this low, how can we expect a high level of achievement from the
occupant since higher education is part of the preparation for higher office quarried Ekpu (2010).
Indeed, that Nigerian leaders are too inexperienced and could be dismissed as starry-eyed novices will
not leave anyone in doubt. The best instrument for the good training and discipline of the mind is education
which is important not only for all shades of occupation but most importantly for those who aspire to leadership
positions. In the process intellectual comprehension and spiritual depth which are elements of mental discipline
are developed. Plato calls them philosopher-kings-men whose thought and insight are so profound that they help
to chart a pathway for society; men who have read widely and understand the workings of business; men who
appreciate the critical role that fidelity plays in powering business to the top and indeed facilitating their plunge
to the bottom; men who posses the intellectual wherewithal to counsel corporation on tips imperative to
accelerated performance in the market place. These men will overwhelm clients with the potency of their
thoughts and ideas that drive superior market place performance. Agitated by the low level of education of
Nigerian leaders level Esiemokhai (2010:12) has recommended:
a good relevant education preferably in the fields of law, economics, sociology and political
science should frame the synthesis for grasping the complex phenomenon which statecraft actually
represents.
The possession of such knowledge will reduce the incidences of tutoring, mentoring and nurturing political
leaders who should have gone through the brain purification process earlier in life. In most successful countries,
it is the outside people not businessmen that assist government to firm up policies. Azaiki (2008) has noted that
in the United States for instance, 5, 100 think tanks support the government and look at government policies,
polish and return them to government. This process enhances governance. But in Nigeria it is the contractors that
think for government due largely to lack of knowledge and understanding of the workings of the system. When
government does not have structures that can enhance or give it capacity support, it will have problems as we
have always had in Nigeria. The attraction of education system is in its initiation who worthwhile activities of
which Nigeria has remained largely dissonant to that principle. No wonder raw power has remained the cultural
model of leadership in Nigeria (get the power before you know what to do with it)

Cognitive Criterion
Here Peters has distinguished narrowness or specialization from wholeness or broad understanding as in
an arm of knowledge. Educated man should appreciate the interrelatedness of various fields of knowledge.
According to Peters, an individual who acquires competence in some limited area may not qualify to be
described as educated because in the case of a scientist:
…the man could have a very limited conception of what he is doing. He could work
away at science without seeing its connection with much else, its place in a coherent
pattern of life: for him it is an activity which is cognitively adrift (1966:31)
Peters would be guarding against the tendency for individual becoming too restricted in what they know as such
narrow interest makes them to become like hermits without seeing the relationship between what they know or
engage in to related ones (Enoh 2002).

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In uncountable circumstances, our leaders have shown themselves as people who are not good chase
players. For instance, president Goodluck Jonathan in one week in 2010 has made a wrong move twice that if
Nigeria were a chessboard he would have lost his king and the game would be over. His ban on Super Eagles
and subsequent reversal of same shows that there was no blueprint for Nigeria’s football or the ban was not
thought through. Also the award of National honours to 186 in the same year on Nigerians is an indication that
national awards have been bastardized as honorary degrees that universities award to people that are not “clean”
as long as they can afford it. Just recently in the same year, a catholic university awarded former dictator General
Ibrahim Babangida and two serving governors honorary degree for exemplary leadership among other simplistic
reasons. IBB? exemplary leadership? When national awards are bestowed on people who should be ostracized
for the ignominious role they played in knocking national engine does it not say something to the rest of the
citizens? Is it not a signal that it pays to plunder your country and not to plough?
Does it not annoye common sense that Nigerian government in October 2010 decided to import 600,
000 units of plastic waste disposal with N1bn for Federal Capital territory when plastics is one industry where
she is open on equal footing with every part of the world given that the basic raw materials from crude and gas
are easily available in the country?. It could also have given the country a comparative advantage. Does such
decision not undermine the country’s image and aspiration to become one of the industrialized nations by 2020?
It is poignant to point out a recent narrowness of mind exhibited by a minister of state for education
Kenneth Gbagi in 2010 when he shamelessly confessed that his daughter was schooling in Ghana because of the
hydra-headed problems of Nigerian education. It is unthinkably that a managing director of the soap I patronize
would say his wife does not use the product he manufactures. Should a man who is not a stakeholder in Nigerian
education be allowed to remain in such a ministry? Whatever happened to moral? The same position accounts
for why Nigerian leaders never bother to rescue education from collapse. The president of Ghana waded in and
averted the strike early enough embarked upon by the University Teachers Association of Ghana. If it were in
Nigeria, the government would have shown apathy until the issue becomes a scandal. If militants threaten to
strike and lecturers threaten same, it is sure the former will get attention first. In the little mind of Nigerian
leaders, militants are more powerful. Little do they realize that teachers/lecturers can do worse in crippling
minds and paralyzing children’s future and outright destruction of a generation. When the chips are down,
leaders whose children school abroad would realize lately that they are not safe as one thing is always the
consequence of another. Is it surprising therefore that the narrowness of mind of leadership in Nigeria prompts
them to repeat effective gauge and plaster therapy for deep national problems?
Indeed, the same lack of cognition is at play when political office holders shamelessly defect from the
parties on whose platform they are serving to other parties and still retain such mandates. Morality is thrown to
the wind. They need to be reminded that ethics has to do with creating values which symbolizes excellence in
behaviour. Accordingly, ethics shape behaviour while behaviour drives performance in every facet of life. It is
therefore of utmost importance to ensure connectivity and where there is any disconnect as we have seen, leaders
are bound to under perform which has been a collective experience in Nigeria. Is it not sickening to note that
25% of annual national budget is spent on national assembly members while the ordinary worker is fighting to
earn a paltry N18,000 a month. Does such a situation not amount to the height of disservice and portend danger
for such a country? Total absence of cognition in leadership is a dangerous weapon that can destroy a nation.

Mode of Transmission criterion

Educational processes have to be directly productive of understanding based on mode of transmission
of knowledge. Here reference is made to the methods of passing on the desired values and mores which
constitute the content of education from one generation to another. Some methods are morally acceptable, others
are not. The reference to methods of passing on the content of education implies that education is a process
which is inclusive of many activities not just a particular activity. Teaching, training, instruction, drill,
conditioning, indoctrination are all distinguishable activities within the educative process which are not by
themselves synonymous with education. That the methods must be morally acceptable implies that the term
education as a process has connotations of value just like the application of the term to content. For a method to
be morally acceptable, it must not deny the learner willingness and voluntariness by which is meant that the
method must be one in which children are treated with respect, are not coerced and ordered around but are
allowed to choose for themselves. Any process that does that guarantee willingness and voluntariness on the part
of the learner does not fall within the class of dispositional concomitant to education and is therefore morally
repugnant.
The defining characteristic of a democratically elected government is that it assumes power at the
pleasure of the majority of the electorate voting in transparent and credible election. A democratically elected
government can only remain in power for as long as it enjoys enough credibility to continue to win majority of

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legitimate votes cast in periodic election as constitutionally prescribed. A democratic system of government
observed Fashola (2008) must pass the credibility test on at least two levels.
Credibility of the government in power at a particular time in terms of its capacity to retain the
confidence of the people through fulfilling the electoral promises that earned it the popular mandate. In exchange
for the mandate conferred on it on trust by the people, the government is under obligation to fulfill its electoral
promises. The degree of success with which it does this will be a critical determinant of its triumph or failure in
future elections.
Credibility of the integrity of the electoral process and its capacity to ensure that government assumes
and retains power only in accordance with the majority will expressed in free and fair election.
That elections in Nigeria are brazenly rigged as exemplified in multiple thumb-printing, figure juggling,
mass violence, ballot box snatching and stuffing is no longer news. That weak capacity is a preponderant quality
of Nigeria’s leaders, a quality shared by their aids and consultants is a naked truth. That these parliamentary
support persons are mostly drawn from their friends and cronies for personal reason rather than added value
professionalism or expertise stares every Nigerian on the face. Given this scenario, gross inability to discharge
the two aspects of legislators responsibility- representation and oversight is a common experience. Because they
were appointed and not elected, their accountability is first to their godfather and so they have no business with
their constituencies. In conducting their oversight, there have been many cases of compromise and lack of
patriotism. The case of Farouk Lawal in the fuel subsidy scam where the hunter has become the hunted is a case
in point. The flaws associated with the mode of transmission criterion in respect of elections in Nigeria has
paved the way for the wide gulf between promises and performance and thus create credibility crises both for the
government in particular and the democratic system as a whole.

Consequences
It is widely believed and rightly too, that no nation, no matter how wishful she thinks, can just wake up
to greatness as greatness, either for nation or individuals is a product of great planning, thinking, focus,
concentration and preparation. Where these qualities are lacking as in the case of Nigeria as a reference point,
what should be expected? Can the Nigeria project from the exploration so far show evidence of greatness? If any
greatness is observed, can it be in the positive or negative direction? Does any one require extra ordinary insight
to appreciate the fact that the criteria of education and the educated man are far from constituting the hallmark of
leadership in Nigeria hence the stories of woes that are daily being told about the country that parades herself as
a “giant”.
The common currency among Nigerian leaders has been sheer greed, inordinate ambition and
desperation for power. Their actions have been such that offend civil society through mis-implementation of
budget, mismanagement of national and world economy, the over manipulation of the stock market, the banks
and the financial sector, the constraining of the manufacturing sector and industries, and utmostly, the provision
of more darkness than light, less power and energy, less food for the tables and less money for the pockets by
way of corruption and bad policies. To Nigerian leaders, civil society should be sub-human with only them
approximating the human conditions of the second and third worlds.
As a result, the country has become a place where savage instincts enjoy free rein and life too cheap and
utterly worthless as government no longer exercises monopoly over the instruments of force, authority and
violence as should be the case in every enclave ruled by sane humans. No thanks to bad roads, dilapidated
vehicles, reckless driving, drugless hospitals, striking doctors, nurses and lecturers, bad and trigger-hungry
policemen, undisciplined armed forces members, hunger and diseases, generally polluted and un-hygienic
environment, decline of the rule of law, weak civil service, economic decay, hopelessness and declining life
expectancy. The fall out of embarking on a mission they are ill-equipped to accomplish-mentally, strategically,
politically and spiritually translates to a house built on the quick sand of illegalities, imposition and injustice,
which will continue to crumble under the weight of truth and incontrovertible evidence. The struggle is not of
brawn but of the brains. The list is endless. In the face of all these negativities, staying alive in Nigeria is a
miracle and an achievement worth celebrating. No nation, no matter how wishful she thinks, can just wake up to
greatness. Greatness, either for nation or individual is a product of great planning, thinking, focus, concentration
and preparation.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Education all over the world remains the best instrument for the achievement of a good life. The criteria
to attain before one could be regarded as educated are spelt out by R. S. Peters. Our exploration of such criteria
and their application to Nigeria has not convinced us that Nigerian leadership is anywhere close to being called
educated. This unfortunate posture has presented the country as a place where the blind try to lead one with

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sight. The glaring disconnect between the people and those that lead them is a function of the nexus between the
ineptitude of the leadership and the acute poverty that characterizes the lives of the citizens. Because they are
convinced, lacked character and have learnt nothing to transform themselves through conscientious service to the
people, the country that should have been flying by now is still in a crawling position. Falling short of the criteria
of education has presented leadership in Nigeria as an establishment that has destroyed the dreams of their
fathers at independence, frittered away the wealth of the children and seeing nothing wrong about destroying the
future of their grand children.
It is hereby recommended that leadership recruitment is a challenge and should be for people who have
intermingled with history, battled with vision and have sieved out pragmatic vision from frwolous illusion, men
who have developed a sense of love for the well being of others whose hand can reach the higher strata including
the celestial stratum and whose love can subdue innate jealousy and can use their strategies to score needle-point
excellence. Education of the citizenry that will arm them with the boldness to insist on a genuine debate on the
pedigree, character, competence and ideas offered by each aspirant and to freely make a choice that must be
respected is the answer to Nigeria’s lunatic leadership” as described by Chinweizu.

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