The blame for the continuous rise in copyright infringement has been put on Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions, an expert in intellectual property law, Barr. Tolulope Adekola has said.
He gave this submission in an interview with newsmen in Ilorin, recently.
Adekola noted that it is not only reducing the integrity of academic work but one of the major factors that have contributed to the low ranking of Nigerian universities among their counterparts in other parts of the world.
Adekola, a lecturer at the Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, while charging tertiary institutions authorities in the country to take copyrights seriously, said those who abuse intellectual property and copyrights laws in their research work should not be awarded certificates.
According to him, the high rate at which people abuse copyrights law is stifling the socio-economic development of the country.
While appealing to stakeholders to be proactive in addressing the menace in the system, he also stated that plagiarism has remained a cancerous tumor on the paths of educational development in the country.
He said, “Plagiarism has become a common thread in the Nigerian education system. It is indeed a cancer that has plagued the academic integrity of our ivory towers.
“In developed countries plagiarism is a serious offence with grave academic consequences levied on the perpetrator. But in Nigeria, it is only normal for researchers to “copy and paste” other people’s work without acknowledging same. Persons have obtained degrees up to Ph.d and even become professors using plagiarised research works in Nigeria” he noted.
Adekola urged stakeholders in Nigeria to adopt the international best practices in using several ICT devices to track down those who violate intellectual property law in their research works before it can be accepted as being original.
