The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, said it has successfully shut down sixty-two unauthorised universities that awarded degrees across the nation.
It added that the commission has also closed down a bogus NYSC Orientation Camp.
This information was revealed by the chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, at a youth dialogue on corruption in tertiary institutions that took place in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), members of the Anti-corruption Vanguards from five tertiary institutions in the FCT participated in the debate, which was organised by the ICPC.
Owasanoye stated that the culprits have since been brought to justice by the Commission. She was represented by Mrs. Hannatu Mohammed, an ICPC Board Member in charge of youth.
He contends that corruption has a crippling impact on educational standards since no country can advance beyond the calibre and level of its educational system.
In order to further the battle against corruption in the education sector, particularly higher institutions, he said that the ICPC established anti-corruption vanguards in schools.
The anti-corruption vanguards, according to Owasanoye, gave students the chance they needed to actively engage in the battle against corruption in their respective institutions.
“The vanguards give the student members the tools they need to instil a culture of attitudinal transformation and zero tolerance for corruption among their fellow students.
He added that the vanguards provide the students with a chance to help the administration of their respective schools successfully lower corruption in the educational system.
In addition to establishing the anti-corruption vanguards, according to Owasanoye, the ICPC reviewed and studied the university system’s operations to find practises that allowed corruption to flourish.
According to him, the research uncovered a number of violations inside the university system, including bribery, receiving gifts, sexual harassment and sexual enticement, cheating on exams, excessive billing, and inflating contract values.
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Others, in his opinion, include giving contracts to friends and family, selling pupils subpar handouts, absenteeism, admissions racketeering, and certificate falsification.
But he said that the panel has subsequently made clear its conclusions and suggested practical, viable alternatives, and had sent this information to the minister of education for execution.
He called for proper scrutiny of students entering tertiary institutions, to ensure that they have the right maturity and moral background and were willing to develop life skills instead of cutting coners.
Barnabas said corruption in tertiary institutions impact significantly on the availability and quality of educational goods and services and has consequences on access, quality and equity in education.
He added that some of the corrupt practices by academic staff include shrinking hours spent in classroom teaching, using teaching time for private business, and grades inflation among others.
The vice chancellor added that parents also push students into corruption by buying grades or bribing lecturers for good grades for their children.
“The use of teaching time for private business, failure of teachers to plan their lessons, poor methods of evaluation, aiding and abating examination malpractices and using wrong teaching methods are seen as corruption.
“Corruption erodes the core values of the educational process and thereby undermines and distorts hurman capital formation.
“It also weakens social cohesion by engendering distrust in interpersonal and intergroup relation, ” he said.
Barnabas said for the country to get it right, “our tertiary institutions must stick to their mandate of teaching, research and community service.
“We should also promote the culture of transparency at all levels; education against corruption for all; set up anti-corruption committees that utilise strategies in the fight against corruption.”
On his part, Mr Mohammed Ashiru, Director, Public Enlightenment and Education, ICPC, said that the overall objective of the dialogue was to ginger the youth to play the role expected of them in the fight against corruption.
He said this would be done through brainstorming and enumerating the major problems corruption generate in the education sector.
Ashiru added that to address the problem of corruption in the education sector, the ICPC had interfaced with key stakeholders in the sector and identified various restructures in the system.
“The partnership led to the involvement of students to hear their perspective on the problem of corruption in the tertiary institutions, hence the result to organise this dialogue.
“The sole purpose of the dialogue is giving youth the avenue to air their mind freely on the problem of corruption in tertiary institutions in Nigeria without fear or favour.
“Panel discussion from the five participating institutions will be on subjects such as the achievements of Anti-Corruption Vanguards in the fight against corruption in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
“Others topics include, challenges of sensitising fellow students against anti-social behaviour; how to manage sexual harassment in tertiary institutions
“What they understand by vote buying and how they will contribute towards eliminating vote buying in Nigeria’s electorate process; between preventive and punitive measures, which one fights corruption better, among others.” (NAN)
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