President Muhammadu Buhari has commended Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), for working so hard to rid the country of corrupt tendencies.
The President gave the commendation in Abuja on Tuesday, at the opening of the 4th summit of ICPC on diminishing corruption in the public sector.
President Buhari who dwelt on the theme of the summit: “Corruption and the Education Sector,” thanked the ICPC for beaming its searchlight on the education sector.
He said: “I commend the Chairman, ICPC, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Registra of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB for organising this summit and bringing together the three arms of Government, MDAs and other stakeholders to deliberate on corruption in the educational sector of Nigeria.
“I therefore look forward to the outcomes and recommendations of this summit. I am sure that the ICPC and OSGF will bring forward the recommendations for appropriate action.”
The Nigerian leader lamented that corruption was gradually becoming endemic in the nation’s higher institutions and praised the effort of the anti-graft agency for standing up against such.
He said; “Government and stakeholders in the educational sector are concerned about the manifestation of various forms of corruption in the education sector. I am aware that students in our universities, for example, use different terminologies to describe different forms of corruption they experience on our campuses.
“There is sorting or cash for marks/grades, sex for marks, sex for grade alterations, examination malpractice, and so on. Sexual harassment has assumed an alarming proportion.
“Other forms of corruption include pay-roll padding or ghost workers, lecturers taking up full time appointments in more than one academic institution, including private institutions, lecturers writing seminar papers, projects and dissertations for students for a fee, and admission racketeering, to mention only the most glaring corrupt practices.
“I am happy to note that ICPC is investigating and prosecuting sexual harassment as abuse of power in our educational institutions. I approve and encourage them to continue to do so,” he added.
Sustained Effort
President Buhari informed the gathering that Nigeria would continue to build the education sector in line with one of the agendas of the Sustainable Development Goals, “education systems that foster ethical and socially responsible global citizens.
“About two weeks ago, I participated in the 77th United Nations General Assembly, in New York. One of the key events was Transforming Education Summit Leaders Day, titled: Transforming Education to Transform the World: Learning to Live Together Sustainably.
“Nigeria joined other countries in committing “to the vision of Education for Sustainable Development and to the objectives of the Greening Education Partnership” and building “education systems that foster ethical and socially responsible global citizens” who actively contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. That is a vision which we will continue to aspire and build,” he explained.
President Buhari urged the academia to consider attracting other means of generating funds for the citadels of learning inline in global practice, as the government cannot do it alone.
He said; “I believe that the role of government in education is to guarantee access and establish minimum benchmarks for quality education. Due to declining resources, the government cannot bear the cost of funding education alone.
“I task our academics to attract endowments, research and other grants to Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education similar to what obtains in other countries,” he said.
Similarly, President Buhari called on unions of universities to demand accountability in the administration of public institutions of higher learning, especially their expenditure.
He said; “Corruption in the expenditure of internally generated revenue of tertiary institutions is a matter that has strangely not received the attention of stakeholders in tertiary education, including unions.
“I call on stakeholders to demand accountability in the administration of academic institutions and for unions to interrogate the bloated personnel and recurrent expenditure of their institutions. Let me also implore the Unions to work with the government to put faces and identities to names on the payroll,” the President advised.
The Chairman of the ICPC, Professor. Bolaji Owasanoye, noted that corruption manifests in different ways at various levels of education, saying the ICPC will not rest on its oars, until such institutions are liberated of corruption.
He said; “Corruption in education manifests in different ways such as recruitment of unqualified or unfit persons to teach at primary, secondary or tertiary levels; admission racketeering; examination malpractice, diversion of revenue for and within the sector, operation of illegal academic institutions especially at the tertiary level, abuse of power and procurement rules by management and governing councils both of academic or regulatory institutions etc.
“In response to the recent epidemic of sexual harassment in the education sector ICPC has constituted a special team on investigation and prosecution of sexual harassment in secondary and tertiary institutions. In collaboration with civil society we are in the process of introducing a model policy on sexual harassment for academic institutions to adopt we have also secured some major convictions including of a professor,” he said.
He said the anti-corruption units of such institutions have recently been strengthened, to boost the fight against corruption.
“In this regard we are strengthening the Anti-corruption and Transparency Monitoring Unit (ACTU) in MDAs. For the education sector we collaborated with other institutions including NUC and NBTE and much more recently with JAMB, our co-host for this event. With JAMB and DSS we conducted last year a series of undercover operations across the country on corruption in the university admissions processes leading to the busting of syndicates and arrest of its leaders responsible for compromising IJMB and JUPEB.
“As is now widely publicised ICPC has intensified its scrutiny of personnel and capital cost of MDAs leading to proactive restraining of surpluses or duplications in the budget. Just last week the Commission in collaboration with the Budget Office and stakeholders met with some MDAs on the recurring surpluses in their payroll to determine proactive measures to improve the budget process,” he said.
Secretary to Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, whose office collaborated with the ICPC in organizing the summit, also underscored the importance of taming corruption in order to reap more funds for developmental purposes.
He thanked the ICPC for leading the crusade against corrupt tendencies at all levels of learning, in line with President Buhari’s determination to extinguish the menace from the society.
Former Chairman of Nigeria’s Independent Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, while delivering the keynote address, thanked the ICPC for being dogged in its fight against corruption in Nigeria.
Prof. Jega urged all Nigerians to join the fight against corruption, so as to correct the negative global perception about the country.
In his goodwill message, Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu appealed to the incoming administration in Nigeria to sustain the fight against corruption which has been reinvigorated by the Muhammadu Buhari led administration.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
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