The Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, Dr Theresa Akande, has said tertiary institutions are central to the change agenda in Nigeria because lecturers are more corrupt than politicians.
According to her, Intellectuals in higher institutions must be ready to play prominent roles if anticipated changes in certain areas of our societal life must be attained.
Speaking on Tuesday at the 10th National Conference of School of Business Studies with the theme: “Anticipated Change(s) in Nigeria: the Roles of Tertiary Institutions,” Akande lamented that youth no longer believed in hard work.
She said, “Shocking as this will sound, many of the Ad-hoc staff of INEC during elections are usually staff of tertiary institutions. Where is the change coming from? Who are the people to bring the change? Who would implement the change?
“For corruption and all other frauds to be eradicated, we must look beyond those who stole in billion and trillion, it should be tackled holistically.
Lecturers who inflate marks, mess around with female students, demand sex for marks or make demands for money are corrupt, in fact, more corrupt because they are destroying lives.
“Students who engage in examination malpractices are corrupt. Staff who report late or absent themselves willfully from work are corrupt.
“So, all forms of corruption must be battled to a standstill because if this is not done, we will only be scratching the surface of our problems instead of uprooting the very tap root.”
Akande canvassed strong synergy between the anti-graft agencies and the tertiary institutions to rid them of corruption.
The Rector challenged the school of Business Studies and participants to justify the conference by “demonstrating towards the system strong loyalty, accountability, transparency and discipline that will bring about the anticipated changes in our country”.
The Dean of School of Business Studies, Mr Olabisi Olasehinde, said the conference was a channel for researchers to present their research works, share ideas with colleagues who have similar scholarly interests, network and cross-fertilize to improve the overall quality of teaching and learning.
In his lecture, the Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Prof Patrick Oladele, in his lecture, said our orientation must change for the country to move forward.
“We must embrace culture of integrity and shun impunity.
There is need for institutions to create enabling environment for learning. It is not enough that students pass through the walls they must also learn values and knowledge that will make them useful to the society.
“Training must go beyond certification. Institutions must provide leadership by example. They must be run on the basis of integrity, uprightness, genuinely of purpose, accountability.
“Tertiary institutions must carry out research regularly to provide solutions to the problems of the nation. They must provide accurate figures and date that government would use in effecting policies.
There is need synergy between institutions and industries so that research work would enhance output.”
(Punch)
