ASUU’s Prolonged Strike, a way forward for the Nigeria Academia; Strategic non-violent action

Abstract

The Nigerian Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on prolonged strikes from 1999-2022 demanding that the Federal Government (FG) fund public universities to be competitive and ranked among the world’s best universities. The strikes have yielded some infrastructural development, but have not raised Nigerian public universities to world standard. Thus, the continued struggle of ASUU with the FG. However, prolonged strikes contribute to low standards in public universities too: contracted school years, half-baked graduates, and extended course time by two or three years. It denies Nigerian graduates enough skills to make them competitive in the job market. Hence, a question about the justification for the use of prolonged strikes and a way forward for ASUU. This article employs a qualitative content analysis of a strategic nonviolent action case study of students in the Ethnic Albanian civil struggle in 2000 with that of ASUU. The sources are books, journals, newspaper articles, and internet databases. This article finds that ASUU needs to use massive strategic nonviolent actions to succeed. Additionally, it must rely less on traditional, religious, National Assembly of Nigeria members and other elite leaders. Rather, it must partner with students and their parents to succeed with massive actions. Public university students belong to the 133 million Nigerian families living in poverty. The students directly benefit from an international standard of public education in Nigeria. If ASUU adopts this new way, it will gain internal cooperation and solidarity; empower students and ordinary Nigerians with the knowledge of how to wage resistance against counterproductive policies of the Nigerian government.