The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned that it may resume its suspended nationwide strike if the Federal and state governments fail to urgently address unresolved issues affecting university lecturers and the wider public university system.
The warning followed the resolution of an emergency meeting of the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) held at its National Secretariat, University of Abuja, on 5 September.
In a press release signed by its President, Prof. Christopher Piwuna, the union accused governments of failing to fully implement the December 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement, despite months of engagements and earlier public warnings. ASUU said the continued uncertainty around salaries, welfare and the conditions of academic staff has pushed lecturers to the brink.
The union particularly demanded the payment of the outstanding three-and-a-half months of withheld salaries, as well as the prompt remittance of pension contributions, cooperative deductions and union check-off dues deducted from members’ salaries. It warned that the non-remittance of these funds, running into billions of naira, was worsening the financial hardship faced by lecturers.
ASUU also raised concerns over what it described as the disregard for university laws and autonomy, citing the two-year tenure extension granted to the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Clement Adebooye. The union condemned the action of Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke, arguing that the extension contradicts the university law and could set a dangerous precedent for the Nigerian university system.
While commending some state governments for beginning implementation of the agreement, ASUU said it could not guarantee an uninterrupted academic calendar if its demands are ignored. The union called on students, parents, labour leaders, media practitioners and other Nigerians to intervene, stressing that it would not accept responsibility if a fresh industrial action becomes unavoidable.
Full statement below:
ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES
(ASUU)
FESTUS IYAYI NATIONAL SECRETARIAT COMPLEX,
UNIVERSITY OF ABUJA, GIRI, ABUJA
PRESS CONFERENCE
WHY ASUU MAY GO ON STRIKE AGAIN
1. This release was prompted by the resolution of an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) held at our National Secretariat, University of Abuja, on Saturday, 5th September, 2026. We addressed the media last month, August 2026, to express our frustration and disenchantment with the despicable manner the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and many State Governments had handled the implementation of the December 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement which took over eight (8) years of relentless struggles to achieve. This appalling situation was on top of other unaddressed issues such as the 2022 withheld salaries of university lecturers, unremitted third-party deductions, disrespect for university laws and autonomy, and declining quality of Nigerian academics.
2. Except for recent attempts by the Federal Ministry of Education to defray outstanding salaries for Federal Universities of Agriculture, there have been no concerted efforts to address our concerns and worries on sustainable basis. Each month, lecturers have been forced to be dagger-drawn with their Vice-Chancellors over uncertainty of when and what part of their salaries would be paid. This time, the union’s message to the nation
is clear: 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.
3. We note with delight, however, that some governors, as Visitors to their State Universities, had created a positive impression in us. In particular, the Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, did not stop at publicly announcing his government’s full adoption of the 2025 FGN-ASUU; he went a step further to apologize to ASUU for the bureaucratic bottlenecks that caused the distortion and delay. We commend Governor Otti for his statesmanship, unwavering support for the academia and uncommon labour-friendly inclination.
May his race multiply for the transformative development of Nigerian universities and Nigeria!
4. We equally commend states like Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Katsina, and Borno where implementation of the Agreement has commenced while noting the pledges to commence in Kano, Edo, Plateau, Taraba, Gombe and Bayelsa in September or October 2026. We invite other state governors – who are still playing the ostrich – to rise to the challenge and tow the path of honour to prevent plunging their
state universities into industrial crisis of monumental proportions. Authorities of the concerned universities have been duly notified of the commencement of strike actions in the respective institutions, with the full backing of ASUU-NEC, unless satisfactory progress is recorded.
5. At the inauguration of the reconstituted Governing Council of the Osun State University (UNIOSUN) on 1st September, 2026, the Visitor to the University, Governor Ademola Adeleke, announced a two-year tenure
extension for the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Clement Adegbooye. By this extension, Prof. Adebooye will remain in office till January 2029 instead of vacating the vice-chancellor’s seat by January 2027. ASUU is seriously
disappointed in both Governor Adeleke and Prof. Adebooye.
6. The UNIOSUN Law, under which Prof. Adebooye was appointed, is a domesticated version of a Principal Act – the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act, 2012. The Law stipulates that the Vice Chancellor shall serve for a single five-year tenure and there is no room for extension. By importing a two-year extension into the UNIOSUN Law, through a hurriedly packaged amendment to serve his purpose, the State Governor has set a bad precedent that could undo the gains of the Universities Miscellaneous Act in Nigeria. The enactment of the Principal Act was part of efforts to curtail the pervading atmosphere of rancor and bitterness thrown up by tenure extension or renewal for vice-chancellors in Nigerian universities.
7. The tenure elongation at the UNIOSUN may have reignited this unhealthy atmosphere. It has all the trappings of exacerbating pent-up anger, sycophancy, and administrative witch-hunt which are all injurious to the healthy growth and development of an upcoming university like UNIOSUN. Again, Osun State has become a bad example for governors who may wish to put political expediency over and above legal and ethical standards to reverse themselves on the Universities (Miscellaneous) Act of 2012.
8. ASUU can not exonerate the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adebooye, who once served as a Branch Secretary to the union at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. His decision to accept the tenure elongation, following the so-called consultation, is unacceptable. It negates our union’s principles and core values. We believe Prof. Adebooye still has room to rethink this matter before January 2027 when his legally valid tenure will come to an end. As for the Visitor to UNIOSUN, Governor Adeleke should be told in clear terms that this singular act of hurriedly changing a law when the tenure of the incumbent is about ending is antithetical to democratic norms and it stands condemned in strong terms. It smacks of disrespect for the rule of law and puts a big question mark on his democratic credentials. This is not good enough for a governor whose recent re-election against all odds drew a nationwide applause. But, should reasons fail to prevail, ASUU shall not hesitate to further challenge the absurdity at UNIOSUN before it gains a notorious national currency.
9. UNIOSUN was established through approved license from the National Universities Commission (NUC) for the common good. It is a privileged sanctuary, saddled with the task of providing the society with its leadership. Nothing should hinder its discharge of this enormous task. The reconstituted Governing Council must be allowed to carry out its mandate without disruptive interference and intrigues. Knowingly or unknowingly, however, the recent action of Governor Adeleke may have set a bad precedence of disrespect for national standard for the Council.
10. We note with regrets that nothing has changed about the three-and-half months’ salaries left out of the seven-and-half withheld by the Buhari Government since we last addressed the public on the matter. 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. Our members have endured enormous financial and psychological discomforts on account of the withheld income which has suffered a devaluation of more than 50 per cent between 2022 and now.
11. It will do this government a lot of good to restore the full confidence of lecturers in the nation building project; for which Nigerian scholars are critical pillars and pivots. We state for the umpteenth time that the lecturers have done the work for which they are being punished. They did it at huge cost to their physical and psycho-social well-being. Some lost their lives in the process and many are now managing life-threatening ailments. For healing and restoration in the Nigerian University System (NUS), we think the withheld salaries of lecturers should be released without further delay.
As for us in ASUU, we shall not give up until our cries get an empathetic attention in the appropriate quarters.
12. Beyond the withheld salaries, deductions for pension contributions, staff cooperative societies and union check-off dues made on behalf of ASUU members – running into billions of Naira – have not been remitted
appropriately for several months. Our engagements with the government on this critical issue of third-party deductions have only yielded paltry outcomes. We restate that not remitting monies deducted from our
members’ salaries is short-changing them in two ways: denying them of incomes that could have been put into an alternative use and causing them to lose additional incomes through returns on investment. ASUU does not
believe the bureaucracies around seamless release of funds accruing from third-party deductions are beyond what the Office the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Finance could effectively
handle. Rather, we are inclined to think that withholding these funds is a deliberate act designed to punish ASUU members for rejecting the discredited Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
ASUU-NEC is fully prepared to call out its members if nothing concrete is done to address this lingering problem without further delay.
13. With the lifting of the ban on electioneering campaigns on 19th August 2026, government’s attention is fast shifting from governance and workers’ issues to focusing on the 2027 general elections. Governments at the centre and sub-nationals are parading numbers about a macro economic growth which has not significantly improved the lives and livelihoods of the masses at the micro level. The purchasing power of Nigerians has
witnessed a precipitous drop since the wholesale devaluation of the national currency while access to healthcare, education, stable electricity, pipe-borne water, all-season roads and other basic necessities of life remains a mirage. Apparently, there is a massification of poverty in the land and the Nigerian ruling class may have set the nation on a trajectory of “growth without development” – a process that puts the people last, not first.
14. It could not have been otherwise given the country’s slavish adherence to blueprints handed down by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other global imperialist agencies. And, as members of the ruling class play ball with their principals home and abroad, peasant farmers, artisans, labourers, and other working and toiling masses are turned the beast of burden. This is why ASUU fully supports the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, in his call for immediate review of the National Minimum Wage to cushion the effect of the debilitating economic hardship on Nigerian workers whose take-home pay can no longer take them home. It is our considered view that the time has come for indexing the minimum wage to inflation in Nigeria. This will, among other things, protect workers’ purchasing power and create a predictable adjustment system to counter rapid cost-of-living increases occasioned by the foreign-induced neo-liberal economic model.
15. 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.
In the same vein, withholding the three-and-half months’ salaries and third-party deductions by the government is an ill-wind for lasting peace on our campuses. We call on students, parents, media practitioners, labour
leaders and other patriotic Nigerians to come into the brewing crisis before it gets out of hand. ASUU can not guarantee uninterrupted academic calendar at the expense of the existential needs of our members. We shall
not watch helplessly while red tapism incrementally frustrate and destroy what is left of the academic profession and universities in Nigeria.
16. At its meeting of 5th September, 2026, 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. ASUU’s doors remain open to government at the federal and state levels. However, Nigerians should not blame ASUU if we are forced to resume the suspended action on account of no satisfactory response from government.
Christopher Piwuna
President
10th September, 2026
