A Typology of Institutional Hostility in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

This paper develops a two-part typology as explanatory models in the growing institutional hostility in Nigerian public universities. The first encompasses ethnic antagonisms and exclusions which have turned the universities into boiling pots rather than the envisaged cultural melting pots; while the other is the anti-intellectualism of the ruling class and a palpable disinclination toward the academic enterprise. Inadvertently, the academy has been polarised into exclusionary communities of privileged ingroups and persecuted outgroups. Contests and encounters in the universities are of the ethnic genre, no longer the intellectual kind and, due to increasing self-consciousness, in-group members have transited from a group in itself to a group for itself, while the outgroup has stagnated as an unorganised but agonising group in itself. Using a historical perspective, the paper illustrates the typology with milestones which include threats, physical attacks, murders and normative persecution of members of outgroups. On the other hand, the anti-intellectualism of the political elite has resulted in the destabilisation of the university leading to dysfunctionality of the academic calendar, brain-drain as well as disillusioned and apathetic students. Unsurprisingly, Nigerian universities rank outside the top-rated institutions in Africa and the world at large, further deprecating the self-worth of intellectuals. Recent reforms, including an autonomy law, have been sabotaged by ethnic and political exigencies and, after an eight-month strike in 2022, Nigerian universities are at a critical crossroad with an uncertain future.