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Lecturers in Nigeria say they will go back to work on Monday after a strike that closed most of the country's universities for eight months, leaving hundreds of thousands of students angry and frustrated.

"That's eight months wasted out of my life, and what did the strike achieve?" asked one student who did not want to be identified.

The strike which began in February was the 9th in 13 years - the latest in a decades-long saga with the government about funding tertiary education in the country and this key question remains unresolved.

The main lecturers' union - the Academic Staff Union of Universities (Asuu) - has been fighting for improved funding but the government says it can't meet all its financial demands.

The lecturers stopped work at public universities to support their demands, but the prolonged strikes have caused widespread disaffection among students and families.

"I did absolutely nothing in eight months," said another student, glad she was finally going back to school in Lagos.
 
"[People] keep saying learn a skill, learn a skill. If I wanted to learn a skill, I won't go to the university," she said.
It is not clear how the major sticking point in negotiations since 2020 - the method of paying lecturers - was resolved, raising concerns that another strike may not be far off.

Lecturers were protesting about a government payroll system they said did not capture certain allowances and led to discrepancies in salaries.

The government, however, said the system helped it check the scourge of ghost workers in the civil service and rejected an alternative payroll software developed by the lecturers as it did not pass its integrity tests.

A previous nine-month strike ended in December 2020 after the government signed an agreement to look into the issues raised by Asuu, but it apparently reneged, leading to several warnings by the union before members eventually downed tools in February this year.
Students who have now missed almost a full session of academic work, two years after a Covid-disrupted one, are now expected to resume classes on Monday and many are not pleased they will not be able to graduate when they ought to.
 
"My mates in private universities have graduated and now have a two years' start in life," said a student at the University of Port Harcourt.

The incessant strikes have eroded confidence in Nigeria's public tertiary education system, leaving people with the options of expensive private universities or migrating to countries with affordable tuition fees, such as in eastern Europe.

Negotiations between the union and the government often drag on but this year's talks were even more rancorous, with the government taking the union to court, whose order to resume was ignored by lecturers.

Children of many politicians, including those of President Muhammadu Buhari and senior professors, often attend school abroad, increasing frustrations that the government and universities' management are not invested in finding a solution to the crisis.