A new report by Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project (SERAP) has revealed how “most allegations of corruption
in federal universities such as unfair allocation of grades; contract
inflation, truncation of staff’s salary on the pay roll; employment of
unqualified staff; Senator Dino Melaye’s certificate scandal saga; examination
malpractices; sexual harassment; issuance of results for expelled student to
graduate; and sales of university certificates for undeserving persons have
neither been thoroughly investigated nor punished.”
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| Unilag Main Gate |
The report titled “Stealing the
future”: How federal universities in Nigeria have been stripped apart by
corruption says, “impunity for corruption in the university system has
negatively affected the governance of federal universities and the quality of
education received by the students.”
The 58 pages report was launched today at
the CITI-HEIGHT Hotels, Sheraton Opebi Link Road, Ikeja, Lagos with the support
of MacArthur Foundation. The report presented to the media by Dr. Bolajoko
Dixon-Ogbechi Nkemdinim, Associate Professor of Business Administration and
Marketing, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Lagos discloses
that
“Most of the time lecturers miss classes
and they never get punished. Getting a job in the universities is not the
question of merit but of connections. Ghost workers syndrome is a problem in
the universities.”
According to the report, “There have been
cases where staff have used their official status to prevent the administration
of justice in their units/departments; universities sometimes recruit mediocre
or totally unsuitable candidates in preference to candidates of high merit.
Most of the time when non-academic staff are not at their duty posts they never
get punished. People with questionable degrees/qualifications paid bribes to
get into the university system. In several cases, people employed by federal
universities through connection with political authorities.”
The report which used the University of
Lagos and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria as case studies identified other cases
of corruption in the university system to include: “bribery to get a position;
NYSC mobilisation before graduation; facilitating fake transcripts; short-circuiting
employment procedures; auctioning university assets without authorisation;
politicised disciplinary action; inflated contracts, admission irregularities
and racketeering, result falsification; nepotism; sexual harassment;
examination question leakages, abetting examination malpractices; and
deliberate poor invigilation of examinations.”
According to Dr. Dixon-Ogbechi Nkemdinim,
“The research team administered questionnaires and conducted interviews at the
main campus and College of Medicine of the University of Lagos. The team also
visited the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where the instrument was also
administered at its two campuses. The report focuses mainly on federal
universities even though there are three different categories of universities in
Nigeria namely, federal, state and private universities.”
The report read in part: “The focus on
federal universities is important because the Federal Government of Nigeria is
the custodian of tertiary education at the national level and it directs and
controls the affairs of the parastatals in charge of tertiary education system
in Nigeria to a very large extent.”
“We also found several unresolved cases
of diversion of university funds for personal use; embezzlement, mismanagement,
unmerited allocation of hostel accommodation, discrimination in the allocation
of staff quarters; certificate/transcript racketeering; improper use of
university assets; inflation of cost of contracts, award of contracts to
friends or relatives; and admission racketeering by non-staff.”
The report launch was attended by Mr
Femi Falana SAN; Barrister Babatunde Ogala; Dr Olumide Ajayi Director
African Leadership Forum; Mrs Jumoke Akiyode; Ms Funmi Oluyede member, National
Executive Council of FIDA Nigeria; and representatives of representatives of
the media; the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences
Commission (ICPC); Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Dr Adeleke
Ipaye. They all promised to work with SERAP to address corruption and
bribery in the university system. SP Binga from the ICPC
specifically promised to look into all the allegations contained in the report.
Falana said, “In 2017, over N200bn was
disbursed by TETFund to our universities. Neither ASUU nor any of the campus
unions monitored the disbursement of the funds. Also, how many companies are
paying 2% of its annual profit to support our university system? The bulk of
the funds meant to improve the universities end up in the pocket of the
contractors. 3 Vice Chancellors are currently standing trials for looting funds
allocated for running the universities.”
Falana also said, “Based on the 1992
FG-ASUU Agreement the federal government was compelled to enact the
Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act. The Act has established the Tertiary
Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) as an intervention agency charged with the
responsibility for managing, disbursing and monitoring the education tax to
public tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Pursuant to section 1 of the Act every
company shall contribute education tax of 2% of its annual profit to the
TETFUND.”
“Professor Baffa, the Executive Secretary
of TETFUND announced in March this year the commencement of activities to
kickstart the 2017 disbursement of the whopping sum of N213 billion to
the nation’s tertiary institutions. If TETFUND can disburse N213 billion in one
year it is my view that if the education tax is well managed it will go a
long way in addressing the crisis of underfunding of our tertiary
institutions,” Falana said.
“Just recently, it was reported that the
new management of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) paid N5
billion to the TSA. The money was realised from the sale of admission forms to
applicants seeking admission to the tertiary institutions in 2017. Meanwhile,
university administrators have not accounted for the money realised from the
sale of post jamb examination forms.”
“Following the recent arraignment at the
federal high court of one of the Vice Chancellors for allegedly stealing
the sum of N1.4 billion, the staff and students of his university invaded the
court and practically forced the trial judge to vacate his order for the remand
of the accused in prison custody! Before then, the same staff and students had
demonstrated for days in the office of the EFCC in a bid to prevent the filing
of charges against the indicted Vice Chancellor. This is not surprising
as has never taken any position in the massive looting of the
commonwealth by the members of the political class who are aided by the
governments and financial institutions of western countries.”
“Having fought and won the battle for
university autonomy the ASUU should ensure that the internal machinery of each
university is deployed to prevent the diversion of public funds. It is
high time ASUU established a committee for the purpose of
monitoring the management of public funds in the universities, the
collection of the 2% education tax by all registered companies in the country
and the disbursement of fund to universities by TETFUND. Unless the public
funds allocated to the universities are judiciously spent by the
management it is morally indefensible on the part of ASUU to
continue to embark on industrial action to press for adequate funding of
tertiary institutions and improved working conditions of the staff,” Falana
added.
According to the report, “Other cases of
corruption being covered up are: falsification of results; extortion of
students; late payment of money due to staff for examination invigilation,
excess workload and other allowances; and collection of bribes before signing
official documents; intimidation and victimisation by superior officials;
promoting preferred staff ahead of others who are equally or more qualified;
and deliberately delaying the progress of Ph.D candidates because of
departmental politics.”
The report also read: “We also found
cases of lecturers writing students’ research projects and extorting fees from
them; students fronting for lecturers to extort from other students; stealing
and misappropriation of university funds; falsification of age; diversion of
funds; and ghost workers syndrome; impersonation during examinations; forgery;
and diverting internally-generated revenues into personal account.”
“Although the originally proposed
sampling locations were Lagos (University of Lagos) and Abuja (University of
Abuja), the University of Abuja could not be accessed because the institution
was on vacation. Hence, the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was used as a
feasible substitute.”
“The judgmental sampling procedure was to
select the relevant universities; simple random sampling procedure was used to
select the relevant departments/units at the University of Lagos while the
snowball sampling procedure was used to select the relevant departments/units
at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Thereafter, the convenience sampling
procedure was used to select the sample subjects from the two universities.”
“The authorities should also publish
blacklists (i.e., lists showing individuals guilty of corrupt practices) by the
university administration; including provisions designed to ensure the proper
conservation and use of resources entrusted to staff in the performance of
their jobs in the university’s condition of service; and involve the unions and
other stakeholders in deciding how funds are to be used for projects in the
university and developing sanctions for staff that do not report corrupt
practices.”
“Most of the findings may only be
applicable to federal universities, in broadly generalised manner. Another
constraint encountered was the respondents’ reluctance to fill the
questionnaires because of their apprehension about consequences or their busy
schedules. However, this limitation was overcome through persuasion and repeat
visitations to them.”
“Because it was not feasible to serially
investigate all the institutions in the education sector in Nigeria all at once
because of the enormous diversity in their geographical locations, this study
focused on federal universities in Nigeria. Hence, questionnaires, personal
interviews and observation techniques were used to gather data from relevant
staff and students at the two selected federal universities. A sample of 1,500
respondents comprising of 900 students, 300 academic and 300 non-academic staff
was taken from the two federal universities under study.”
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