On Wednesday, a Nigerian court ordered professors at public institutions to end a protest over pay difficulties that had been going on for seven months and disrupting classrooms.
As a result of the lecturers’ increased compensation demands and the government’s repeated attempts at negotiation ending in failure, President Buhari’s administration was forced to file a case with the National Industrial Court.
Nigerian public university professors frequently engage on months-long strikes over unfavorable working conditions.
Judge Polycarp Hamman ruled in an interim decision that the academics should resume their jobs until the government’s lawsuit was resolved.
Students demonstrate
Following this strike, students in Nigeria demonstrated on Monday, September 19, against the strike impasse that has closed the nation’s public colleges and angered an estimated 2.5 million students.
Hundreds of students stopped a main route leading to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Nigeria’s busiest airport, defying armed security guards in the commercial center of Lagos. A few flights were canceled.
The demonstrators carried signs and sang songs as they marched, pleading with the Nigerian government to grant the requests of the teachers at public universities who have been on strike since February.
Lecturers appeal
Nigeria’s striking university professors want to appeal the National Industrial Court of Nigeria’s decision ordering the union to end its continuing statewide strike and return to work, according to local media reports.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities advised its members to “stay calm” and noted that its attorneys had already filed an appeal.
After both parties were unable to come to an agreement, the administration turned to the court to prevent the professors from extending their strike.
It warned that if the walkout wasn’t called off, Nigerian students and the nation as a whole will suffer irreparable harm.
