The study focused on leadership qualities and business skills needed by business education students in public
universities in South-East Nigeria for national security. Survey research design was adopted. Two research
questions and two null hypotheses tested at .05 level of significance guided the study. The population for the
study was 53 business educators (21 males and 32 females) in public universities in South East states of
Nigeria. The number was manageable hence, there was no sampling. Structured questionnaire containing a
total of 22 items was the instrument for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was determined using
Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient method. A correlation of .81 was obtained. Out of 53 copies of the
questionnaire distributed, 52 copies were returned giving 98.11% return rate. It was found out that: ability to
communicate( ̅ ), display honesty( ̅ ), solve problems( ̅ ) are among the leadership
qualities and the ability to prepare budget( ̅ ), set procedures for achieving plans( ̅ ), make
innovations( ̅ ) and use promotional tools( ̅ ) are among the business skills needed for by
business education students for national security. Also, possession of leadership qualities and business skills
are not gender biased. Recommendations made include: the identified leadership skills should be integrated in
the curriculum by stakeholders for training business education students and business educators should ensure
that the students are trained on the business skills identified to enable the students armed with salable skills
and contribute to national security.