ASUU STRIKE:l While I sympathize very much with Nigerian students that have been forced to stay at home for several months, my humble opinion is that until the University communities come forward to regularly and formally engage the Government on the principles (or, perhaps deficiencies of principles) by which the country runs, without restraint only to the University sector, this perennial strike problem will keep repeating itself. Parliamentary democracies have the luxury of "shadow governments", which unfortunately is absent in the presidential democracy that we have. The universities boast of knowledgeable persons whose expertise cut across virtually every sector of the society - there are, for instance, professors of criminology, and professors of economics. In my naivety, I may have missed scholarly publications that have possibly emanated from our universities proposing a solution to the problems of kidnapping and graft in Nigeria - if there are any such publications.

I would suggest that, when this current strike is over, the Universities should canvass for, and win, a specific date in each quarter of the year, on which there will be a public debate between representatives of the government on the one hand and representatives of the Universities on the hand as per moving the nation forward - not only in the University sector.

It would be interesting to see professors of Sociology and Criminology together with the Minister of Police Affairs and the House and Senate Committees on securities engaging each other in a public debate on managing armed robbery and kidnapping in Nigeria. Not once, but regularly - like, say, once every quarter.

Just my opinion - I may be very wrong