Sam Amadi, the Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, and the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Musa Aliyu, SAN, have spoken strongly against academic corruption in Nigerian universities.
They spoke on Thursday during an African anti-corruption programme which took place at the University of Abuja, now Yakubu Gowon University.
Speaking on the pervasiveness of academic corruption, Amadi said certificates and degrees from Nigeria no longer have value.
According to him, the Nigerian educational system has lost its value, noting that lecturers now become professors without merit.
He advised that Nigerian tertiary institutions should place premium and seriousness on stamping out corruption by tackling examination malpractice, sexual harassment and other corrupt activities.
“So the fact that we can’t trust the point of education, the fact that we can’t even trust the quality of our professors. So they become professors without going through the rigour and the proper standard. So essentially, it is just fitting the system; it creates a sense of entitlement, it creates a sense in which people don’t care about rules and also creates a sense in which people don’t care about production.
“That’s a major cause of loss of value in Nigeria.
“I think they should; I would say what steps they should take. They should be serious. First, professors who are involved in sexual harassment – that’s even the worst, sexual harassment, sex for grades – want to see more political punishment.
“Universities should also be rigorous in recruitment
