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ABUJA — Negotiations between Nigerian college professors and the government this week failed to end a strike that has kept most of the country's universities closed for nearly three weeks. Sonia Ashionye is in her final year at Delta State University and she’s supposed to be in school. “Right now everything is dormant. We can’t continue with our projects. We can’t go to classes,” she said fixing a client's hair at a salon in the southern Nigerian city of Warri. The strike, she said, was going to delay her graduation and exams were already being postponed. “I am actually wanting them to call off the strike but the government in their own should do things, as in try to meet up with the demands of these lecturers so we can try to go back to school,” said Ashionye. 'The only way' University lecturers, however, said striking was the only way to get the government to take their demands seriously. Benjamin Agah is a political science lecturer at the Delta State University. He said, in 2009, the government agreed to increase salaries, build laboratories, and transfer government lands to universities by 2011. So far, he said, nothing has happened. “The best option to any crisis is dialogue. But most time the federal government is not willing to actually dialogue with us. And even if they dialogue with us, the federal government will not implement it,” said Agah. Some locals, however, said that the strike would do more damage than good to the education system in Nigeria. Gabriel Osekene is a security consultant in Warri. He said the education system was already on the verge of collapse, and shutting down classes was only making things worse. “They should call off their strike and turn back to school. And then go back again to your own roun...
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