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.
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.

The University authority should do something. it is embarrasses to University community. Prof Kundiri is a man of honesty, he must safe the university

Awon gegemity professor. I'm not surprised; it is Nigeria where everything goes.