Pampering of children by parents and exposing them to excessive affluence makes them unable to pass examinations and contributes to sex-for-marks scandals in Nigeria’s universities, the Vice-Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Professor Ibrahim Garba, said yesterday.
Speaking on Radio Nigeria Kaduna programme monitored in Zaria, he also identified decay in the moral upbringing of children as another factor aiding the trend.
He said: “University is not like secondary school, as students are free on the assumption that they are mature. The decay in our moral training is alarming. Parents no longer correct their wards where they go wrong. Children are now the ones controlling their parents. Some of these students are over-pampered.
“Some parents have gotten illicit funds, therefore they release this money to their children without control. You can have a student with money in her account that is far above her lecturer’s salary. You see students driving expensive cars or using expensive mobile phones.
“All these make the students lazy and therefore have to resort to other means to pass exams. This makes them to even take themselves to some bad elements among the lecturers for them to pass exams. However, we put stringent measures in place to punish anyone involves in this bad behaviour.”
