ENUGU—-A professor of Economics at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, Nicholas Attamah, has identified economic stagnation, capital flight and weak institutions as consequences of deep-rooted corrupt practices in Nigeria.

Professor Attamah stated that the spread of corruption in Nigeria has done a lot of damages to the nation’s economic activities, adding that efforts by the governments to eradicate the monster from the public service over the years have been unsuccessful.

He made the disclosure weekend, while presenting the 56th inaugural lecture of ESUT titled “Navigating the Moral Maze: Wealth Creation and Ethical Conduct in a Corrupt Public Sector.” He further said that due to the culture of corrupt practices in Nigeria such as bribery, embezzlement, money laundering among others, some investors have relocated to other countries of the world because of uncertain business environment, resulting in capital flight in the country. “Corruption has created an environment of instability and uncertainty that deters investment in Nigeria.

Corruption creates a climate of risk and uncertainty because of the fear that their assets could be seized or that contracts may be unfairly awarded. This has created capital outflow in the country thereby reducing the tax base and making it more difficult for the government to finance public services,” he explained. He equally said that despite the establishment of anti graft agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, to combat corruption and promote transparency, desired results have not been achieved.

He therefore, recommended institutional reforms, strengthening of anti-corruption agencies and ethical leadership development as panacea for corruption ravaging every facet of Nigerian economy. He further stated that by promoting ethical conduct and implementing strategies to reduce corruption, governments can create conducive environment for wealth creation and economic growth in Nigeria.

Earlier in his opening remarks, the Vice Chancellor of ESUT, Professor Aloysius-Michaels Okolie, noted that the topic of the lecture was timely owing to the monstrous growth of corruption and moral decadence in public sector, and society at large. He further called on Nigerians to reflect on the reasons behind deep-seated corrupt practices and moral dislocation in the nation.

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Ebe Ano City – Prof Nicholas Attamah will deliver the 56^th Inaugural Lecture of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT).

The lecture which promises to be devoid of pontification will be based on strict and clinical dissection of compelling variables in the decadent public sector economy of Nigeria.

A Professor of Public Sector Economics and Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, ESUT, Prof Attamah will anchor his lecture on the theme “Navigating the Moral Maze: Wealth Creation and Ethical Conduct in a Corrupt Public Sector”

The Lecture will be delivered on Thursday, March 26, 2026 at the Dr Peter Ndunuii Mbah Multi-purpose Auditorium, ESUT Main Campus, Ebe Anọ City Enugu by 11am. 

The lecture would be historic as the Dean becomes the first Professor in

the Department of Economics to deliver professorial lecture. Scholastic fireworks will be robustly unleashed.

The 56^th Inaugural lecture is coming just a month after Prof Patrick Onuamah delivered the 55^th edition on February 26, 2026.

Prof Nicholas Ezeudo Attamah, Professor of Public Sector Economics, a Consummate Scholar with subsisting mantle as the Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences And Humanities, is overly poised to blaze the trail as first Inaugural lecturer in academic annals of Department of Economics.

According to Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by Transparency International, last month, Nigeria ranked 142nd out of 182 countries, scoring 26 out of 100. This indicates high levels of perceived public sector corruption, maintaining a similar score as 2024 despite a slight drop in ranking due to the increased number of countries surveyed.

The CPI, which measures perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), assigned Nigeria a score of 26 — unchanged from 2024. Despite the steady score, the country slipped two places from its previous 140th position, reflecting relative declines as other countries made progress.

Nigeria’s performance remains significantly below the global average score of 42, which itself fell slightly from 43, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50. The ranking also places Nigeria behind 33 other African nations.

Within Africa, Seychelles led the continent with 68 points, followed by Cabo Verde (62), Botswana (58), and Rwanda (58). Other countries that ranked ahead of Nigeria include Mauritius, Namibia, Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya, and Egypt.

The CPI, which measures perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), assigned Nigeria a score of 26 — unchanged from 2024. Despite the steady score, the country slipped two places from its previous 140th position, reflecting relative declines as other countries made progress.

Nigeria’s performance remains significantly below the global average score of 42, which itself fell slightly from 43, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50. The ranking also places Nigeria behind 33 other African nations.

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Barring last-minute change in plans, Professor Nicholas Attamah is set to be returned unopposed as the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities when the deanship elections are conducted on August 15, 2024, in ESUT, www.esutmonitor.com can report authoritatively.

Investigation by this paper shows that currently, Prof Attamah is the sole candidate for the position of dean in the faculty.

Having assumed duties in November 2021, Prof Attamah’s remarkable achievements, perhaps, scared others from challenging him for the position.

Many political watchers in the faculty believe that he has set antecedents that he may find difficult to outdo in his second term as the past three years in the faculty have witnessed improvements in both structure and welfare of the staff and students.

For instance, staff in the faculty have witnessed unprecedented promotions to the ranks of professors and readers as well as other levels, thanks to the pragmatic faculty board which Prof Attamah superintends.

 In a chat with ESUT Monitor, the dean provided more insights on why he deserved the return votes. 

“I came in, over two years ago and through the effort of the board, we have gotten three Associate Professors to full professorship and also about five of them have moved from senior lecturer positions to Associate Professors.

“Then the CCMAS that was introduced by the NUC, my faculty was the first to complete the CCMAS and NUC also recognized my Faculty for such a feat we achieved.

“In terms of students’ welfare, we have been able to organize the students in such a way that they now know their rights and privileges. Over the years, many students who come to school don’t even know their rights, they see a lecturer as a god which is not supposed to be.

“I have organized seminar to inform them about their rights and privileges on campus and have also told them that they should regard lecturers and non-lecturers here who are workers, as their parents. Students will get to understand their lecturers when they don’t see them as gods because communication will be easier.

“We have six departments here – Economics, English and Literary Studies, Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology, Psychology and History and International Studies. These are the six departments that make up the Faculty for now. And that is why we have Social Sciences and Humanities.

“The Vice Chancellor has promised that by next year, the faculty will demerge so that we will stand as Faculty of Social Sciences. Then Humanities can now go and form Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

“We have made it compulsory, every student will dress in their uniform from home. Before I took over students dressed while on campus. They hang their uniforms and on entering the Faculty, they start dressing. But I made sure they dress from home and before I did that, I showed example. I wore the uniform for Economics for two days,  I did that for the Political Science and each time I wore it, I call them to come and see me dress from home, not hanging it and coming here to put on the dress.

“There is serenity in the faculty and students now do their studies without any harassment from any lecturer. I have also told the students that why lecturers are lazy these days is because the students no longer want to study. The faculty library was not in proper shape when I came in. Nothing was happening there. Through the help of our staff and students we were able to tile the whole floor of the library. If you go there it’s looking neat and well arranged,” Prof Attamah said.

The 2024 ESUT Dean of Faculty elections will hold on August 15 across all the 12 faculties in the university. ESUT registrar, Chief Ambrose Ugwu told this paper that there is no going back on the date adding that the management is already waiting for the results of the elections.

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By Joseph Joy, Shedrack Eze, Ogechi Chika, Blessinhg Nwokpkwu

Faculty Deans have lauded the management of Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT on the introduction of a decentralised system during the 42^nd edition of the University’s matriculation held in February this year.   

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aloysius-Michaels Okolie announced prior to the matriculation ceremony held on February 23 that the system would be decentralised to allow faculties coordinate their activities.  

The decision received massive goodwill from both students, parents, lecturers and now deans who are voicing their support for the continuation of the exercise.

Speaking in separate interviews, the Deans of Faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities and Environmental Sciences, Professors Nicholas Attamah and Austine Emenike, respectively, were unanimous in praising the university management and calling for the system to be retained going forward.

The Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Prof Nicholas Attamah, who described the Vice-Chancellor as “Talk-and-do” VC, said that students, staff and parents were marvelled at the new system and poured encomium on the VC and his management team for such policy change.

“The decentralised system was very effective and I pray the Vice Chancellor, (I call him talk and do Vice Chancellor, because he is so innovative in what he is doing in this University) retains it. The students and staff and even parents were marvelled. The system had so many advantages.

“It made students to come very close to their lecturers and understand what is meant by matriculation. They now feel the impacts of what matriculation is all about.

“Secondly, it brought the parents very close to the guardians of their children and their wards. That day, when we finished the matriculation, I made sure that parents go to their respective children’s departments, to see where their children are schooling, where they are attending classes. Assess the nature of the offices of the lecturers that are teaching their children and the facilities that are there.

“The rich ones among the parents can say ‘no, let’s help this department to uplift the infrastructure that are there’. So, there are a lot of advantages.

“Parents who do not know the dean, now know who he/she is, his office, they now have access to the HoD’s office. They now have physical contacts and a link. If his child is not behaving well, he can always call the Head of Department, one of the lecturers, the Dean and introduce themselves to get information about their children.

“The matriculation also afforded the students to come very close to their lecturers because if it is the normal way, the students would normally be somewhere, they do not know who their lecturers are, who their deans are. They are just there. But for the last matriculation we saw that almost all the students were there and participated fully. The older students came out to tell them what they are experiencing and the mistakes they made during their year one so they will not repeat them.

“Such things would not happen when it is done by the school authority centrally. But now it afforded students the opportunity to get close to themselves, older students, their lecturers, dean and all the faculty members.

“So, this decentralization of matriculation is one of the innovations that the Vice-Chancellor brought that will remain with him forever because he has started it and it shouldn’t end with him.

“It is one of the best practices of the administration and we thank the VC for his innovative mind,” Prof Attamah concluded.

On her part, Faculty of Environmental Sciences Dean, Prof Austine Emenike expressed similar view

“It was a new policy direction and we commend the management for their ingenuity. The decentralized system afforded the parents and students great opportunity to know and interact with their lecturers. The parents visited the departments and made their comments.

“It should be retained. We did our best and I believe that if the system is retained, there would be much improvements going forward,” Prof Emenike said.

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