Corruption Destroying Nigeria’s Education Sector – Femi Falana

Activist and lawyer, Femi Falana, has decried the rate of corruption in Nigeria’s public education sector, making learning a torrid exercise for students.

Mr. Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said this on Saturday, when he spoke at the Lagos State University SU Leadership Conference at Ikeja, Lagos State.

Speaking on the topic: “Value-Driven Nation: A Myth or Reality”, he said the corruption in the education sector has exposed the tertiary institution students to poor welfare and learning conditions.

In a recent report, CAMPUS REPORTER reported how one of the country’s foremost schools, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, now  faces worsening infrastructural deficit, a problem that questions the institution’s routinely touted capacity for quality education. 

Apart from deplorable living conditions in the school’s halls of residence, scarcely do students have adequate classrooms and lecture theatres for learning. In most cases, as our correspondent found, these facilities have limited carrying capacity compared to number of students using them, therefore denying sizable number access to lectures.

In another top school, the University of Ibadan, we reported the pains of special students living and studying in the school on account of infrastructural and policy inadequacies.

These problems, many have said, are not unconnected with corruption and low accountability standards in Nigerian schools, added to poor funding by the government.

The right lawyer, Mr. Falana, said the corrupt practices in the sector make students to be living under poor welfare condition, poor classrooms, and unequipped laboratories. 

Speaking further, Mr. Falana said government must reorganize the education sector in line with the need of common man.