By Hillary Asemota
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday admitted that corruption and incessant and prolonged strikes especially by University lecturers undermine investment in the education sector.
The President made the declaration at the Fourth National Educational Summit on Diminishing Corruption organised by the Independent Corruption Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) in Abuja.
He said: “Corruption in tertiary education often imply that government is grossly underfunding education, but I must say that corruption in the education system from basic level to the tertiary level has been undermining our investment in the sector and those who go on prolonged strikes on flimsy reasons are no less complicit.”
According to him, the theme of the summited: “Corruption and the Education Sector” is apt as corruption in any sector affects development, adding
that from inception, his administration has consistently made the fight against corruption a cardinal pillar of its comprehensive commitments and agenda to reform the nation.
He said: “We signed up to the Open Government Partnership and adopted the Open Government Declaration under which we committed to have robust anticorruption policies, mechanisms and practices that ensure transparency in the management of public finances and procurement, and to strengthen the rule of law. We have tried in the last seven years to keep faith with these commitments.
“I am pleased to have participated in each of the previous summits organized by the current Board of the ICPC under the leadership of Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN, in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, targeting different aspects of our administration’s commitment to fight corruption.”
He said this year’s summit will mirror how corruption undermines educational policies, investments and creates an unfriendly learning environment for our youths.
The 1999 Constitution, he added places a premium on education by placing it on the concurrent list, thereby laying the responsibilities of budgeting and underwriting qualitative education on both the Federal and State Governments.
“The total education budget for each year is therefore a reflection of both federal and state budgets and should be viewed with other financial commitments in their totality.
“The allocation to education in the federal budget should not be considered via allocation to the Federal Ministry of Education and also academic institutions alone, but should include allocation to the Universal Basic Education, transfers to TETFUND and refund from the Education Tax Pool Account to TETFUND.” He added.
He reiterated that the aggregate education budget in all the 36 states of the federation and that of the federal government, combined with the internally generated revenues of the educational institutions themselves are also a subject that requires the attention of critics of government funding of education.
Buhari listed sorting or cash for marks/grades, sex for marks, sex for grade alterations and examination malpractice as vices that besieged the educational system, adding: “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.
“Government will continue to fund education within realistically available revenue but stakeholders, including the media should equally advocate for transparency in the amount generated as internally generated revenue by educational institutions and how such funds are expended.”
According to him, 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.
He said: “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 government to put faces and identities to names on the payroll.
“I believe that the role of government in education is to guarantee access and establish minimum benchmarks for quality education. Due to declining resources, 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.