Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President, Africa Public Relations Association (APRA), Mr Yomi Badejo-Okusanya has called on the nation’s communication students, journalists, and media/marketing professionals to partner with the Federal Government in ensuring the success of the on-going war against corruption.
He made the appeal at the second annual guest lecture of the Lagos State University School of Communication (LASUSOC), tagged, “Corruption, Image Making and National Development: Role of Communication”, held at the Faculty of Education Auditorium of the university.
While delivering the lecture, Badejo-Okusanya, said corruption has blighted all aspects of the Nigerian society and responsible for the stagnation and underdevelopment of the country, despite its huge potential. He decried societal obsession for affluence without commensurate hard work, which he claimed, “has made a large number of Nigerians both inside and outside the country to devise ingenious ways of accumulating wealth through dubious means.”
He added that students should equally purge themselves of this negative attitudinal baggage, if they must make a positive difference in the nation’s quest for a just, humane and corruption-free society. He explained further that corruption was not limited to corridors of power but extends to all spheres of life including the academics, private sector and even non-governmental organisations.
He appealed to staff and students from different faculties of the university to shun all corruptive tendencies, adding that the war against corruption can only be won when everybody in his or her little corner decides against the evil.
Chief host and Vice Chancellor, LASU, Prof Lanre Fagbohun, identified corruption as the greatest challenge against the nation’s development aspirations and admonished youths, particularly undergraduates to serve as vanguards in government’s fight against corruption.
“Whether at continental, national, corporate, institutional or personal levels, corruption dwarfs developmental aspirations and erodes brand image. Unless this malaise is frontally confronted, Nigeria nay the African continent will continue to be enmeshed in image and credibility crisis and the desired societal/ national development will be a pie in the sky.”
Also speaking, Dean LASU School of Communication, Prof Rotimi Olatunji, described Badejo-Okusanya as one of marketing communication finest experts on the African continent, reputed for his integrity. He said this year’s lecture was aimed at sensitizing students of communication to their constitutional and patriotic role of promoting probity, transparency and good governance.
Fight corruption with pen, Badejo-Okusanya tells LASU students
