From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
A non-governmental organisation, WADATA Media and Advocacy Centre (WAMAC), has called on Rivers State Government to address alleged corruption in the education sector.
It also urged the state government to use the inspections, regeneration, remuneration, reward and evaluation approach to check corruption in the sector.
The group made the call at the weekend during a Town Hall meeting in Port Harcourt to address new concepts against corruption.
Executive Director of WAMAC, Mr. Zubair Idris, said that the meeting was organised to appraise the new concept of fighting corruption through citizens participation in governance and enhancing community interface on investigative journalism.
Idris, who is also the Project Manager, Media and Advocacy Centre, said that the media advocacy and community engagement against corruption would complement the anti-corruption agencies’ efforts to check the menance.
He also urged all Nigerians to take ownership of the fight against corruption in the country.
In his paper on ”Corruption in Education Sector in Nigeria: The need for Moral Reorientation”, Mr. Andrew Ajai, the Lead Advocate, Centre for Character Reorientation, described corruption as ”a negative word that wants to win the positive world”.
Ajai said that corruption in the education sector included: teachers not teaching properly and lecturers insisting on students buying their handouts or textbooks in order to pass their examinations.
He also listed sexual harassment by lecturers to students and students to lecturers to pass examinations as some of the corrupt practices in the sector.
“Others are extortion by school principals and teachers, exam malpractices, embezzlement, parents inducement to teachers and lack of funding to schools.
”Poor enumeration of teachers, building of private schools by political leaders with public funds, among others, are also corrupt practices.”
Ajai, who called on teachers to teach students to reject corruption, also called for use of close circuit cameras in all schools to check the practice.
He said that relevant authorities and stakeholdeers should encourage investments in science and technology in all schools for students to compete with their counterparts globally.
Also, Mr. Sunny Dada, Founder, African Centre for Media, Governance and Peace Building (ACMGP), in his paper on “Irregular Funding and Corruption in Primary and Secondary Schools in Rivers”, urged state governments to audit its schools.
Dada urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the Ministry of Education to determine if funds were misappropriated.
He also urged the Rivers government to always employ qualified teachers in its education sector.
Similarly, Mr. Shehu Abdurashid, the representative of the EFCC, said that corruption included deliberate perversion of societal rules for personal benefits.
Abdurashid, who said that EFCC had zero tolerance for corruption, urged Nigerians to embark on whistle blowing of corrupt practices to check corruption in Nigeria.
Prof. Kingdom Orji, the Dean Faculty of Humanity, Ignatius Ajulu University of Port Harcourt, also advised Nigerians to fight corruption impartially, as opposed to ‘selective corruption’.
Also, Mrs. Onyeneke Chinonso, one of the secondary school teachers in the state, urged government to improve on the welfare of teachers and shun nepotism to move the country forward.