Osinbajo cautions lecturers, varsities officials over unethical roles

VICE President Yemi Osinbajo has said the present state of Nigeria’s and Africa’s education cannot be divorced from the unethical and criminal roles being played by lecturers and university administrators.

He said many times, people blame the government, the parents and even the students for the decay in the system but often ignore the contributions of lecturers, workers and administrators of the institutions as important stakeholders in the educational sector.

Osinbajo spoke at the opening ceremony of the 13th Regional Conference of Higher Education Research and Policy Network (HERPNET).

The event, which was organised in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, with the theme, “Managing corruption in African higher education systems”, was held at NISER’s conference hall, Ibadan.

The vice president, who was represented by a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Sadiq Radda, said corruption starts with basic things such as not doing the right thing at the right time to condoning unethical and criminal behaviour within the institutions.

He said: “Perhaps the discussion here today may start with everyone accepting the fact that the responsibility of killing corruption from our institutions rest on us.

“Many times, we pass the buck. We blame government for underfunding higher institutions and the students for not being diligent enough. We blame parents for the rot in our higher institutions while we ignore the fact that as lecturers and administrators, we contribute to the state of education in our countries.

“Corruption starts with basic things such as not doing the right thing at the right time to condoning unethical and criminal behaviour within our institutions. Worst still, when we allow such to become the order of the day.

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“If we must address the issue of corruption and find an enduring solution to it, we ought to pay particular attention to basic things such as the admission process, our commitment to students wellbeing; how we adhere to lecture timetable, examine scripts marked and when results are released, when students get their certificate after graduation, the employment process, promotion, training opportunities for academic and non-academic staff.

“Relationship between students and the lecturers, effective complaint mechanism and the protection of the complainant, due process in the award of contract and so many other things.

“These may appear basic, but are strong indicators of a functional educational system, which places any institution at an advantage to compete at the global level.”

HERPNET President Prof. Olukolade Odekunle said the group is so sensitive to government laudable policies and programmes gear towards sustainable growth and how corruption can be effectively managed through the instrumentality of higher education.

Director-General, NISER Dr. Folarin Gbadebo-Smith, who opened the conference, noted that although he was initially reluctant in hosting the conference because of paucity of funds, he was persuaded by the conference theme and his passion to ensure the development of research and educational sector and the continent at large.