Plagiarism as define by dictionary is “the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own”. Wikipedia, also define Plagiarism as the “wrongful appropriation” and “stealing and publication” of another author’s “language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions” and the representation of them as one’s own original work. Beyond these dissolute behaviours are the academic scandals: plagiarism, examination misconducts and falsification of data by students and teachers. Cheating, plagiarism and falsification of data has always been a part of the academia, but in recent years, such infringements have taken a different meaning and dimension. For instance, there are professional exam takers, professional interviewees, and the “exchange students.”
Undergraduates and Graduate students are plagiarising their final year project report which we called Thesis/Dissertation is an academic rape in the Nigeria institutions. Adding plagiarism, acclaimed as the greatest crime in scholarship, to the rot is a major source of worry. With such a malaise the future of this country is jeopardised. We want our varsities to churn out people with reasoning be it students or lecturers, we want them sound academically. This will also go a long way to helping our productive capacity in Nigeria..
Recently, an Indian researcher in Bhopal has claimed that her work related to Ear Biometrics has been plagiarised by a Nigerian researcher and his student and published in an international journal. Dr Ruma Purkait, a forensic anthropologist in Dr H S Gour University in Bhopal, has claimed that her work done in collaboration with IIT Kanpur has been reduplicated without her knowledge by Dr Samuel Adebayo Daramola and his student Oladejo Daniel Oluwaninyo from the department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Covenant University Ota Ogun State, Nigeria. Dr Purkait immediately brought this to the notice of the Editor of the journal and at the same time sought an answer from the authors of the papers —“It was shocking when the authors wrote back stating that I should sell them the data now at an affordable price,” Dr Purkait said, adding that the Editor has sought an answer from the authors, who have claimed that their study is based on a data of 1,050 ear images supplied by Purkait. “They used my name to authenticate their study which is not based on any data. They have also claimed a very high accuracy for their new method and have even given the details of experiment how the data was used in a stepwise manner. Their work is completely farce,” Dr Purkait said. Professor Victor Dike, a US-based Nigerian scholar, also accused two academics of the Department of Economics, University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), a Professor and his junior colleague, of plagiarising his work.
Research Misconduct is significant behaviour that improperly appropriates the intellectual property or contributions of others, that intentionally impedes the progress of research, or that risks corrupting the research record or compromising the integrity of research practices and incudes fabrication of data, falsification of data and misrepresentation, obstruction of investigations of research misconduct and misleading ascription of authorship. Such behaviors are unethical and unacceptable in proposing, conducting or reporting research, or in reviewing the proposals or research reports of others.
The Universities should develop serious punishment for research misconduct. A professor and an assistant lecturer in the Chemistry Department of the Federal University of Agriculture, FUNNAB, Abeokuta have had their appointments terminated based on an allegations of plagiarism. The professor, Janet Bamgbose, and the assistant lecturer, Akeem Bamigbade, were fired by University Council. Six lecturers of the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, has been dismissed from the university by the institution’s Governing Council. In a statement by the Deputy Registrar, Information, Mr. Ajibade Olubunmi, the affected lecturers were dismissed for offences ranging from plagiarism, manipulation of examination scores and sexual harassment, to falsification of employment records. Two professors lecturing at the Department of Economics, University of Port Harcourt, have been dragged before a Federal High Court sitting in the state on alleged plagiarism of the works of a United States of America- based Nigerian Professor. The University of Port Harcourt lecturers, Professor Steve Tamuno and Professor Needorn Richard Sorle, were alleged to have copied the works of Prof Victor Dike, an adjunct Professor at the School of Engineering and Technology, National University, Sacramento, United States, without authorization and or acknowledgment. To be sure, Professor Patrick Igbinovia, then Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Benin, was suspended in 2008 for plagiarism. A chemistry lecturer in Nassaraws State University was accused of plagiarized all his papers and he escaped to Federal University Wukari and became a professor of chemistry. He was elevated to the status of Deputy Vice-Chancellor. How can students appear before him for examination misconduct when he is guilty of research misconduct? Dr Mohammed requested that appropriate sanctions be meted out on Professor Mattew Aremu, but that the former Vice Chancellor did not do anything in that regard.
For a long time now, Nigerian Universities have been plagued by plagiarism without concerned authorities addressing this issue. However, recently, the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVNU) is seeking to address this issue. Turnitin is working in partnership with the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVC) to roll out the anti-plagiarism technology nationwide. Hence, the introduction of plagiarism checker in the Nigerian Universities ecosystem, will play a good role of reducing if not eradicating the case of “Copy-cat” in our Universities. Instruction has gone to universities, that every graduate, post-graduate or doctorate work must be checked for plagiarism before they are examined.

Wow what a write up.

Good

Hmmm, one has to be very careful when carrying out researches to avoid getting involved in this crime.

That's why I keep my research works in my Sanctum Sanctum

96% of projects thesis written by Nigerians (Final Year students, MSC, PhD students) are laden with plagiarism. Prior to writing projects, our lecturers here don't take the time to educate students on academic writing and academic honesty. Students just do google things, copy and paste without referencing where the idea is gotten from.

Truth is - at undergraduate and MSC level, just a modicum of write up is expected to have originated from your own thoughts and ideas while
about 80% of your work is expected to be referenced because you're not solving any problem per se. it is at the PhD level that 90% of your work should be original. But this is not the case in Nigeria.

Turnitin a software used by most foreign schools to check plagiarism. It always tells the sites you copied the work from, most Nigerian lectures don't even read student work not to mention detecting plagiarism. If you copy any work just make reference and you are off the plagiarism hook.