LAST month, Nigeria’s oldest university, the University of Ibadan, ordered its students to leave, in the middle of term, after violent protests over electricity and water shortages brought classes to an end. Similar protests have left the University of Port Harcourt, in the south-east of the country, closed for more than a month. Student protests are not just a Nigerian problem: across Africa, unrest has prevented universities from functioning, with many forced to close for weeks at a time. Classes at Fourah Bay College, part of the University of Sierra Leone and the oldest institute of higher education in sub-Saharan Africa, were suspended in March after student strikes. In South Africa, thousands of students began the academic year by marching on the parliament in Cape Town. Such disturbances continue across the country.
