Ike Ekweremadu, the Deputy Senate President has highlighted the need for African parliament to meet up with the inherent challenges of legislative business in the 21^st century by setting higher formal education benchmark for lawmakers.

The Deputy Senate President pointed this out deliberating on the issue at the 14^th Conference of Commonwealth, African Region, held in Mahe, the Republic of Seychelles.

Ike Ekweremadu observed that the challenges of legislating for the African societies in the 21^st Century had made higher educational qualifications an imperative for parliamentarians while condemning the effect of long years of military rule on the development of African legislatures.

In his opinion “The theatre of politics at the domestic and international levels is changing drastically. This has thrown up many complicated issues like terrorism, piracy, climate change and global warming, child trafficking, global economic recession, trade imbalances between the North and South, cyber-crimes, among others, which require some form of intellectual sophistication to deal with.”

He however, commended that despite the absence of minimum qualifications or prescription of low qualifications in their laws, many African parliaments have been impressive in the pedigree of their members.