Government closes university following demonstrations

The government of Niger has closed the country's only state-run university following student demonstrations last week. The Ministry of Secondary and Higher Education said in a surprise statement on Monday that Abdou Moumouni university in the capital Niamey would be closed immediately to allow the authorities to undertake "a redistribution of student accommodation." The university's 12,000 students were given just a few hours to clear out of their rooms and by nightfall the campus was deserted. “This measure is to improve the management of university facilities on the campus where for some years organised student groups have acted as rulers in defiance of the basic rules of society,” the ministry statement said. On 8 October, hundreds of demonstrating students blocked main roads in Niamey and set up barricades around the campus to press the government of President Mamadou Tandja to improve housing, dining and transportation services. They also demanded the payment of student grants. The students had planned to stage an indefinite strike, but were dissuaded from doing so following promises from the government. Niger, which is one of Africa's poorest countries, spends US $3.5 million on the university every year, but this is not enough to provide an adequate level of services. Chaibou Mamane, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Secondary and Higher Education, said in the government's defence that the authorities had dramatically increased spending on the university last year to improve the university's facilities. Students were unimpressed by the government's tough action in closing the university altogether. “The campus’s closure is concrete proof that the authorities can't solve students' problems and don’t have the will to either," Issa Boubabcar, one student, told IRIN. Another suggested that closing the university was simply a way of preventing student protests when President Jacques Chirac of France visits Niger next week. "To avoid embarassing their important guest they will close the campus until he leaves,” he predicted. An international seminar in 1999 proposed new ways of private financing for the university, but the government has not so far acted on its recommendations. As a result, it has run chronically short of cash. These financial difficulties have provoked repeated student protests and strikes by unpaid lecturers.