President Mugabe’s extreme conservativism and his notion of pan-Africanism may portray him as a man with little intellect—and western media outlets even make him look worse.

But on a good day, the Zimbabwean President can be ranked as far intelligent than President Obama, David Cameron and almost all the leaders we have in Africa—that is if we are counting the number of degrees he holds.

He is a man of intellectual substance—perhaps, too old to remember most of the things he studied at this stage of his life.

Apart from the many honorary degrees bestowed on Robert Mugabe, he worked hard to earn several genuine degrees—with his first being a BA from the University of Fort Hare in 1951.

After this degree, Mugabe, earned six further degrees through distance learning, including a Bachelor of Administration and Bachelor of Education from the University of South Africa.

He also earned a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Laws, Master of Science, and Master of Laws, all from the University of London External Programme.

He earned the two law degrees while he was in prison and the MSc while leading the Zimbabwe government.

Perhaps at this stage you are wondering what President Mahama of Ghana has—he has two degrees.

President Mahama attended University of Ghana, Legon, receiving a bachelor’s degree in history in 1981 and a postgraduate diploma in communication studies in 1986. He also studied at the Institute of Social Sciences, Moscow in the then Soviet Union, specializing in social psychology, where he obtained a postgraduate degree in 1988.

So on degree by numbers basis, Mahama is not Mugabe’s co-equal.