The influence of inter-religious and farmers- herders’ crises on the Management of Public Universities in North Central Nigeria

The study investigated the influence of inter-religious and farmers- herders’ crises on the management of public universities in the North Central Nigeria. Two specific objectives with corresponding research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study was 9,708 academic and senior administrative staff in seven Federal Universities in North Central Nigeria. The sample size for the study was 384 academic and senior administrative staff who were drawn using purposive, proportionate stratified and convenience sampling techniques. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire. Experts validated the questionnaire and its reliability was established using Cronbach Coefficient Alpha Method which yielded a coefficient of 0.87. Data collected for the study was analyzed using Means and Standard Deviation to answer the research questions and Chi-Square Goodness of fit to test the hypotheses at 0.05level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that inter-religious crises have no significant influence on the management of public universities in North Central Nigeria. The finding however, revealed that farmers-herders’ crises have significant negative influence on public universities’ management. The study concluded that farmers-herders’ crises in North Central Nigeria pose a threat to public universities’ management. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the Federal Government of Nigeria should as a matter of urgency, use all security apparatus to ensure that the crises between farmers and Fulani herders come to an end. This can make the management of public universities better strive. The university management should ensure that clear guidelines on religious activities are put in place to avoid spreading religious intolerance and violence which could result in violence on campuse