Abstract:
With the emergence of one-party states and military regimes, state-university relations took a turn for the worse. The perception of the role of the university and the academic changed in the eyes of the state. By 1970, the university had become a subversive institution. A long history of difficult and often mutually suspicious relationships, that militarism and authoritarianism would later exacerbate, ensued. As the last decade of this century draws to a close, there is a growing political determination and will on the part of African universities and dons to link their struggle for a better university system with the demands for open political space. Using Nigeria as an example, I argue that there can be no meaningful discourse about the crisis of the university without a full grasp of the extent of the damage inflicted on the public mind and on civil society in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. I argue that the crisis of the state is mainly a crisis of governance, and for as long as it remains unresolved, no positive changes would take place in the university system. The paper also recounts the struggle of Nigeria's Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to restore a credible university system.

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Amuwo, Adekunle (1999). Confronting the crisis of the university in Africa - Nigerian academics and their many struggles. Occasional Paper Series, vol. 3, no. 2. Harare, Zimbabwe: African Association of Political Science (AAPS).