NIGERIA

Corruption rife at Nigerian universities – Report
A recent report by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has uncovered corruption in many of Nigeria’s higher education institutions, highlighting collusion among staff, students and other stakeholders, writes Iyabo Lawal for The Guardian.Amid claims of misconduct levelled at one institution by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda Resource Centre, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) published a report entitled Stealing the Future: How federal universities in Nigeria have been stripped apart by corruption, claiming that there were allegations of corruption in several federal universities relating to the unfair allocation of grades; contract inflation; truncation of staff’s salary on the payroll; employment of unqualified staff; certificate scandal; examination malpractice; sexual harassment; and issuance of results for expelled students to graduate.
SERAP noted that corruption and impunity in the university system have adversely affected the governance of federal universities and the quality of education received by students. In December 2015, the federal government set up several committees to investigate petitions against alleged corruption in some universities and polytechnics to “get to the root of the matter and ensure that justice is done”.
Full report on The Guardian Nigeria site