The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to resume its suspended nationwide strike if the Federal Government and state governments fail to urgently resolve outstanding issues affecting university lecturers.
The union said it could reactivate the strike “without any further notice”, citing incomplete implementation of the 2025 agreement, payment of 3.5 months’ withheld salaries and non-remittance of billions of naira deducted from lecturers’ salaries.
ASUU President, Christopher Piwuna, disclosed the position in a statement issued early Friday after an emergency meeting of the union’s National Executive Council at the University of Abuja.
The union said the 2025 agreement followed more than eight years of negotiations but remained only partially implemented by the Federal Government and several state governments.
“Unless immediate and concrete steps are taken to FULLY and COMPREHENSIVELY address issues bordering the welfare and well-being of Nigerian academics, ASUU-NEC will not accept any blame for calling out its members on a nationwide strike action within the shortest time possible,” the union warned.
ASUU commended Abia State Governor Alex Otti and the governments of Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Katsina and Borno for beginning implementation of the agreement.
It said Kano, Edo, Plateau, Taraba, Gombe and Bayelsa states had pledged to begin implementation this month or next month.
However, the union warned other state governments to act quickly to prevent their universities from being plunged into an “industrial crisis of monumental proportions.”
Withheld salaries
ASUU also demanded the immediate payment of the remaining 3.5 months of salaries withheld from lecturers during the previous administration.
The union acknowledged that President Bola Tinubu’s administration had paid four of the 7.5 months withheld during the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“We have consistently acknowledged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for paying four (4) out of the withheld salaries. However, leaving out the unpaid balance does not give his government the full credit of a labour-friendly administration,” ASUU said.
The union further alleged that pension contributions, cooperative deductions and union check-off dues amounting to billions of naira had not been remitted for several months.
ASUU said the unpaid salaries, unremitted deductions and incomplete implementation of the agreement were threatening industrial peace in Nigeria’s public universities.
“In no mistaken terms, ASUU posits that the non- or haphazard implementation of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement by federal and state governments is a recipe for industrial crisis in Nigeria’s public universities,” it said.
The union urged the Federal Government and state governments to urgently address the outstanding issues.
“ASUU-NEC resolved to notify all concerned that the Union may activate its suspended strike action without any further notice if the critical issues raised in this release are not speedily addressed,” it warned.
