Nigeria university strike caused ‘crisis’ for small businesses

A year after a 10-month strike shut universities, businesses that need students for patronage are still struggling.

Ilorin, Nigeria – Last March, tricycle taxi driver Murtadoh Alfa, 33, never imagined that the declaration of a two-week academic strike at the University of Ilorin would cripple his business and leave him in debt. But as the initial warning strike called for by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) – the umbrella body for Nigerian lecturers working in government-owned universities – persisted, eventually stretching until December, small business owners like him who depend on students for patronage faced an unprecedented challenge. The sprawling 5,000-hectare campus in the capital city of Kwara State in western Nigeria, hosts more than 50,000 students and nearly 4,500 staff. It is normally a hive of activity, but by late March 2020 – with lecturers refusing to return to class coupled with the government’s national lockdown measures for COVID-19 – there was an exodus of students.