Expert wants Buhari to take corruption war to tertiary institutions

The Chairman, Executive Trainers Limited (ETL), and an expert in higher education-related issues, Dr. Ayo Ogunsan, has called on the Federal Government to take its anti-corruption campaign to campuses of the institution of higher learning in the country.

At a media briefing in Lagos, Ogunsan also expressed serious concerns at the level of decay in the nation’s tertiary institutions, stressing that as facilities where future Nigerian leaders were trained, there was need for sanity in the sector.

He also expressed his firm’s readiness to assist the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government in mounting anti-corruption campaigns on campuses saying, “We have been consistently preaching what our new president has come to preach- to encourage institutions to do the right thing because we don’t encourage corruption on campuses. On the fifth anniversary of this company in Abuja, the guest lecturer from the University of Reading, United Kingdom, spoke on the topic, ‘Combating Corruption in the Citadel of Higher Learning,’ and it is so painful that there is a lot of corrupt activities taking place at our tertiary institution. Mr. President has started already and we are willing to strengthen his hands to sanitise higher institutions.”

Ogunsan continued, “Since 2008 we have been stressing the need for our institution to be run professionally, profitably and competitively to meet with global standards. We have been able to partner with 13 notable higher institutions across the globe. We advocate lecturers who wouldn’t take bribe; lectures who don’t ask female students to go to bed with them before they can have good grades, lecturers who don’t turn handouts to merchandise. We have been asking for chief executive officers of campuses who help their staff without collecting anything in return. We have also developed a curriculum to address issues relating to fighting corruption on our campuses.”

The ETL chairman further informed, “We are also going to encourage students to stop the destruction of properties on campuses, just as we are bringing student union leaders from all regions of the country and making them to interface with their counterparts in the developed countries in order for them to appreciate, how they argue their points when they are not comfortable with policies of their school managements. How they discuss constructively without taking up arms and disrupting school programmes.”