Educationist advocates inclusion of anti-corruption studies in Nigerian schools
NAN-H-6
Corruption
By Usman Aliyu
Ilorin, Oct. 6, 2016 (NAN) An educationist, Dr Toyin Akanbi, on Thursday advocated the introduction of Civic and Anti-Corruption studies in Nigerian schools, to entrench current war against corruption.
Akanbi, a former Provost of the College of Education, Ilorin, made the call in a paper presented at a seminar on “Nigerian Youths and the war against corruption” in Ilorin.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) repots that the seminar was organised by a Non Governmental Organisation, Common Cause Initiatives.
Akanbi said the subject should be made compulsory at all levels of the nation’s education sector.
He said government must impose heavy taxes on luxury foreign items, to promote local industries.
“Government should impose heavy taxes on luxurious motor vehicles, residential buildings, flamboyant dresses etc,” he added.
The educationist also called for the reorganisation of the existing anti-corruption agencies and weed out bad eggs in the system.
Akanbi said that Nigerians must change their attitudes to nation building in order to tackle the hydra-headed challenges facing the nation.
He said that the school system offers the best platform of addressing the challenges.
“Corruption is endemic and noticeable in all human activity and sectors, including health, education, transport, unemployment, religion, judiciary and security.”
He identified avarice, greed and poverty as main causes of corruption in the society, adding that the problem has pervaded all segments of the society.
In his paper, a Political Science lecturer at the Federal University, Lokoja, Dr Ebenezer Lawal, advocated for the removal of immunity clause from the Nigeria Constitution.
Lawal, in the paper tilted; `Considering non-institutional options to fight corruption in Nigeria: the role of the youths’, described immunity clause as a shield for politicians and leaders to steal public money.
“The immunity clause in the constitution has been one of the factors that has made the executive to engage in corrupt practices.
“As a result this clause, public servants in Nigeria do involve themselves in series of corrupt practices with the conviction that they are exempted from being probed,” he added.
Lawal argued that removing the clause would deter public officers from engaging in corrupt practices.
The convener of the seminar, Dr Bosede Oyedepo urged Nigerians to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in the war against corruption.
“The fight against corruption is a common cause for the people of Nigeria; we are therefore operating within the environment of our common agenda,” Oyedepo said.
She said the event was organised to create consciousness among Nigerians on the ills of corruption.
“When we study the dimension of corruption and corrupt practices in Nigeria; we came to a conclusion that it is an issue that has dangerously become an acceptable culture in Nigeria.
“It is dangerously becoming unfashionable not to be corrupt in the public and private life of the people of Nigeria.
“It is a moral burden that is a serious albatross on good governance in this country.
“It has international dimension to the image of this country, as the rating of Nigeria on the list of Transparency International has remained shameful for years,” she said.(NAN)
AUO/AOS/MZA
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Edited by Bayo Sekoni and Controlled by Maharazu Ahmed