Professor Ike of the Department of Economics and Development Studies of the University stated in his paper titled “Corruption and its Impact on the Economic Development of Nigeria” that re-branding Nigeria will result to putting the cart before the horse without solving the issue of corruption adding “The product will not sell”.

The professor of economics identified corruption as the reason for the country’s stunted growth in all sectors as well as difficulties in fast development as evident in rating of Nigeria as one of the top ten most corrupt nation in the world.

He also identified causes of corruption to include great inequality in the distribution of wealth; the weakness of government’s enforcement mechanism; low wages in public sectors; political office as the primary means of gaining access to wealth, and general scarcity of public assets relative to demand.

Other causes are the absence of a strong sense of national community; conflict between changing moral codes; election rigging; the existence of exploitable national resources; ownership of state enterprise; and proliferation of centres of waste i.e. states and local governments.

Professor Ike pointed out that past and present Nigeria leaders have stolen or misused 407 billion dollars or 225 billion pounds which is about N60 trillion. According to him, this amounted to a sum equal to all western aid to the continent of Africa between 1960 and 1997.

He however suggested abolition of federal character principle as one way of tackling corruption saying that “Appointed people who should help implement the policies of government should be by merit and transparency which should supersede geography”.

Other ways of tackling corruption according to the erudite scholar include implementation of electoral reforms; salary balance between political office holders and public sector workers; promulgation of the freedom of information; removal of immunity given to political office holders; reduction of the states and local governments to six and 400 respectively; and strong political will to fight corruption.

In a remark, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Aize Obayan lamented the effects of the hydra headed corruption on every sector of the country and promised the readiness of the University to partner with relevant agencies particularly the Nigeria Police to stamp out corruption.

She stated that the University has been in the vanguard of zero tolerance for corruption via the Total Man Concept platform, one of the University’s custom built programmes which have been able to redefine the lives of the students, adding, “We drive discipline without apology”.

The VC extol the virtue of the Chancellor of the University, Dr. David Oyedepo who saw the vision of discipline army of staff and students and is putting everything in place for it reality. She also praised the lecturer for doing a great justice to the issue of corruption and has been able to identify core need to move ahead.