Kabiru Danladi Lawanti

All over the world, the university is regarded as a centre of learning. It is a place for advancement of knowledge through research and teaching. The university serves as a place where elite are trained, who can eventually become the managers of the society and these individuals trained, ensure the ultimate good, well-being and development of the society in which they live. However, in Nigeria regrettably, the university system has been turned into a direct opposite. The system has been enmeshed in a series of crises since early 1980s to the present day from funding to students unrest and Academic and non-academic staff strikes. The crises in 80s and 90s were under military dictatorship and started with the issue of improve allowances and salary for staff to issue of funding the system to the University autonomy. Specifically in 1988 the union crises and confrontation reached its peak and they organized a National Strike to obtain fair wages and university autonomy. As a result,...

Since the return of democracy in 1999, northern Nigeria has found itself in a dilemma. Rift between ethnic minorities and the major ethnic groups widened, occasioned by Muslim/Christian conflict in several states of the region. The crisis in the region was compounded by loss of power in the centre, bad leadership from the region’s political elite and the Boko Haram insurgency, which turned Borno and Yobe states into an Afghanistan of a sort. So many things happened in the past that drove the region to where it is now and still few of us think beyond the box. Instead, the region and its elite are busy fighting an unwinnable battle. We may be lucky to return power to the region in 2015, but will that be the end of the region’s hive of problems? As all attention is now shifted to 2015, few of us are paying attention to the incessant carnage in Borno and Yobe. Just 2 weeks ago, the Maiduguri Air Force base came under attack. Attackers, numbering hundreds, who 2 years ago killed th...