Corruption in Nigeria Tertiary Institution

INTRODUCTION: Nigeria, a nation endowed with natural, human and capital resources with a population of over 160 million people an estimated growth rate of 4.65 percent and covers 923.8 thousand square kilometers, about the size of California, Nevada and Arizona states in the United States, (Usman, 2007). Nigeria as a country, is the eight largest oil exporting country in the world and its oil reserves are estimated over 1000 trillion cubic feet (Usman, 2007). It is unfortunate that a country with such abundance cannot compete with the Asian and the industrialized countries, is struggling to stand on its own. This is due to the prevalence of poverty, ignorance, diseases and unemployment to name a few, which is characterized by corruption, corrupt practices/activities and the mismanagement of the resources and affairs of the country. The quest for material possessions and position with corrupt tendencies had been revealed with the various probes of some sectors in Nigeria which indicated top ranking government officials. Above all, the quest to pass examinations at all cost due to emphasis hard on Certificates (rather than skill or life-long learning) had made students not to embrace honesty and integrity in their conduct in schools Corruption and corrupt practices in education constitutes a serious threat to the successful achievement of education for all or national education goals as pointed out by Hallack and Poisson (2007), corruption tends to reduce the resources available for education, it limits access to education, especially for the disadvantage groups, it also leads to deterioration of the quality of education and increase social inequalities.

Literature Review According to the African Union, corruption is estimated to cost Africa, directly and indirectly, some 25 percent of its Gross Domestics Product (GDP): The Economist 19th sept.2002 cited in the Hallack and Poisson(2007) in defining Corruption in Education, Hallack and Poisson(2007)