Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) says high rate of corruption in the education sector has been a major challenge to achieving Goal 2 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015.
Executive Director, CISLAC, Mr Auwal Rafsanjani, told newsmen on Friday in Abuja, that the sector’s corruption, which hampered the achievement of MDG Goal 2 (Universal Primary Education) still lingered.
Rafsanjani said that corruption in the education system symbolised unchecked mismanagement of funds meant for projects, thereby resulting in ill-equipped laboratories, libraries and classrooms.
He listed others to include, embezzlement, policiticisation of education, bribery, abuse of office, sexual misconducts, and unmerited advantages among others.
“Giving insight into the nature of corruption in the education sector, the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) revealed that corruption has weakened the sector.
“This leads to low efficiency, wastage and misappropriation of resources, low quality service delivery among others.’’
Rafsanjani said that land corruption was also prevalent in Nigeria, adding that this was because citizens had limited access to information and insufficient access to justice.
He said that there was need to ensure that the ownership of land was not restricted to the rich and wealthy alone, neither should it be for a particular gender or age group.
He said that public procurement was also one of government’s activities most vulnerable to corruption, adding that it was revealed that more than half of foreign bribery cases occurred through procurement contracts.
The executive director urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the strengthening of anti-corruption mechanisms, such as the passage of the Whistleblower protection bill, and strengthen the Freedom of Information Act in his second tenure.
He said there was need to leverage on the FOI Act in assessing procurement information and to also leverage on various accountability platforms to ensure relevant stakeholders upheld integrity.
Rafsanjani encouraged all government agencies to comply with the provisions of the FOI Act to minimise corruption and secrecy that often impaired good governance, transparency and accountability.
According to him, this will aid the president in tackling corruption for effective results and enhance the fight against corruption.====NAN
