Confrontation Politics and Crisis Management: Nigerian University Students and Public Policy: A Social Commentary

Most of Nigeria’s indepedent existence has been devoted to confrontation polities and successive crises management. This kind of confrontation politics was played for its political dividends during the Sharia controversy in the Constituent Assembly (1978). Between April 10 and 30 1979, it was the turn of the Nigerian University students to play the same game with the National University Commission, the Police, the Army and the Federal Government. The National Union of Nigerian Students, or its latest reincarnation, National Organization of Nigerian Students, has spearheaded a drive since January 1979 that has resulted in a national tragedy of great magnitude, and an intolerable reign of terror in Lagos, a severe loss of property and a general abuse of individual rights in several places in the country. The author attempts to sort out the factors that produced the latest eruptions in confrontation politics. Notes.