Universities over the years have experienced a rash of incessant strikes and academic disruptions due to disputes arising from protests and agitations for adequate funding from government to spur research and provide the necessary infrastructure for conducive and purposeful studies. The National Industrial Court (NIC) was established as the final court in the land that determines trade disputes and related matters. This study was carried out to understand ASUU's perception of the National Industrial Court (NIC) in dispute resolutions and enforcement of agreements involving the Federal government.
The study adopted Social Schema Theory and Perception - In-Action Theory. A descriptive research design was employed for the study, using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. The study sample consisted of 816 respondents across the universities in Southwest, Nigeria. A stratified simple random sampling technique was employed to get respondents from the ranks of lecturers in the chosen universities. Also, In-depth Interviews were conducted with male and female respondents and content analysis was employed for qualitative data.
The findings indicated that majority of the respondents (74.5%) declared that federal government did influence NIC judgement on ASUU. The correlation findings R = 0.042 (0.080) illustrated that there was a very weak non-significant relationship of 0.042 between the job position and the level of confidence in National Industrial Court (NIC).
Consequently, the acts by government have prompted disruptions in the academic calendar of universities, with a gradual but steady decline in the standards of education and the flight of the best and brainy academics to advanced capitalist western nations.