They were getting bored out of their skulls, the students of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, where I stayed on campus this Summer. The academic staff in the entire country was on strike to enforce better financing of Nigerian higher education. Because of that students were twiddling their thumbs for months, nobody could graduate and most of them eventually gave up and went back to their parents'. When the union recently announced a provisional end to the strike, because the government had promised to raise the budget of education, students coming from all parts of the country hastened back to their universities in order to sit for their exams. Whether their professors will keep at it in the long run, remains to be seen. The Nigerian government is not exactly known for keeping its promises.
