Rising from its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja on 8 – 9 August, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned of fresh unrest across Nigerian public universities, saying it has authorised branches in more than 20 federal and state-owned institutions to begin varying levels of industrial action over unpaid entitlements and the alleged poor implementation of the 2025 FGN-ASUU agreement.
The union said lecturers are still owed the balance of three-and-a-half months’ salaries withheld during its 2022 strike, despite the payment of four months by the Federal Government. It also cited delays in the payment of 25 and 35 per cent wage awards, promotion arrears, monthly salaries and pension remittances, warning that the patience of its members was wearing thin.
At the end of the meeting, ASUU listed institutions including Nasarawa State University; Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University; University of Medical Sciences, Ondo; Gombe State University; Plateau State University; Kaduna State University; Enugu State University of Science and Technology and Imo State University among those granted permission to press their demands after meeting required conditions.
A press statement signed by ASUU President, Christopher Piwuna, a professor, alleged that several state governments had failed to adopt the new salary package for academics and accused some university authorities of harassing union members.
It said the union would not consider ending actions in Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Imo State University (IMSU), and very recently Abia State University (ABSU) until the alleged victimisation of its members stops, adding that it would reconvene in the coming weeks to review compliance with the agreement and decide its next steps.
Beyond staff welfare, the union raised concerns about political violence ahead of the 2027 elections, underfunding of education and alleged shortcomings in the government’s solar-power projects in universities. It also called for a halt to what it described as improper conversion of non-academic staff to academic positions, and criticised TETFund’s classification of universities as “tenable” and “non-tenable” for postgraduate training support.
Full statement below:
PRESS CONFERENCE
NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES AND NIGERIA TODAY: OUR WORRIES, OUR PROPOSITIONS
Dear Comrades and compatriots of the press
I. PREAMBLE
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) held its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the University of Abuja on 8th and 9th August 2026 where issues bothering education, labour, economy, politics, and security were critically reviewed with a view to intervening in the ongoing national discourses. NEC generally frowned at the worrisome signals in the sociopolitical and economic landscape as the country prepares for off-cycle and on cycle elections. The endless accusations and counter-accusations of political killings and pre-election violence among political actors undermine the advertised gains of the minimalist electoral democracy, economic stabilization and counter-terrorist drive. NEC interrogated the various dimensions of these existential threats and highlighted their grave implications for meaningful working and living conditions among the Nigerian people, and especially Nigerian academics. Some propositions were offered to arrest the ugly trends and avert a looming national crisis.
II. 2022 WITHHELD SALARIES AND OTHER ENTITLEMENTS OF LECTURERS
In words and deeds, the Federal Government appears to have turned its back on paying the outstanding balance of lecturers’ three-and-half months arising from the 2022 nationwide strike action of ASUU. The union had applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s initial pro-labour disposition for paying the four out of the seven-an-half months’ salaries withheld by the last administration. However, the non-payment of the balance has left a strong bitter taste in the mouths of ASUU members. The repeated union’s arguments that its members made extraordinary sacrifice to cover the lost ground during the provoked-strike action and that paying the withheld salaries would further cement industrial harmony on the university campuses appear to have fallen on deaf hears. This is a sad development. It fails to recognise the sacrifices Nigerian academics are making under a suffocating socio-economic and political atmosphere they have had to work. NEC, while rejecting governments position, resolved to use all legitimate means available to the union to make the government reciprocate the goodwill ASUU members have demonstrated before and since the signing of the December 2025 FGN-ASUU.
NEC also expressed serious concern over continuous delay in the payment of 25/35% wage award and promotion arrears of our members. In view of the waning patience of our members across branches, we hereby call on the Federal and affected State Government to urgently pay these entitlements in order to encourage our members and guarantee industrial harmony in our Universities.
III. IMPLEMENTATION OF 2025 FGN-ASUU AGREEMENT
The signing of the December 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement was seen by many as a significant move to arrest restiveness among academic staff of Federal and State universities and chart a new path of growth and stability for the Nigerian University System (NUS). However, the haphazard implementations of the Agreement by governments at the two levels leave much to be desired; making the resurgence of campus unrest inevitable. While Federal Universities of Agriculture are almost totally left out, Vice-Chancellors of other federally owned universities are struggling to partially implement the financial component of the Agreement or raise their empty hands in helplessness due to non-funding of their monthly salary bills by the federal government. At the State level, only about 10% or less among the governors have openly endorsed the new salary package for academics; several others are playing the ostrich, pushing their responsibilities to the Governing Councils that have no financial backing and resorting to all manner of intrigues and falsehoods.
Consequently, NEC resolved to grant some affected state and federal universities permission to embark on varying degrees of industrial action to press home their demands after satisfying the requirements. Among these universities are Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai (IBBUL), University of Medical Sciences, Ondo (UNIMEDO), Gombe State University (GSU), Gombe, and Plateau State University (PLASU), Bokkos. Also included Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba (AAUA), Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma (AAUE), Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology (OAUSTECH), Okitipupa, Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu, and University of Education and Entrepreneurship (UEE), Akamkpa. Some others are Emmanuel Alayande University of Education (EAUED), Oyo, Kaduna State University (KASU), Kaduna, Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology (formerly Kano State University of Science and Technology, KUST), Wudil, Northwest University Kano (NWUK), and Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu. The other universities are Imo State University (IMSU), Owerri, Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, University of Africa, Toru-Orua (UAT), Bayelsa Medical University (BMU), Yenagoa, and Taraba State University (TSU), Jalingo. NEC also noted that the implementation status of the 2025 Agreement in state universities in the Lagos Zone was under review and appropriate declarations about the institutions would be made in due course.
ASUU acknowledges the ongoing efforts of the Chairman of the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC), Senator Lanre Tejuoso, to make Visitors to State Universities respect the spirit and letters of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement in view of the representation of their universities at the negotiation table. However, the attitude of officials of the federal ministry of Finance, office of the Accountant General of the federation in timely release of funds, and the armstrong tactics of owners and administrators of State Universities to emasculate union leaders on many of these campuses give serious cause for concern. The recent harassment of our members by Vice Chancellors in the following universities, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Imo State University (IMSU), and very recently Abia State University (ABSU), will not be tolerated by NEC. For the avoidance of doubt, NEC will not consider calling off the action in these universities, until the victimization of our members stops. The federal ministry of finance has deliberately stalled the payment of our promotion arrears and its foot dragging tactics in the release of our monthly salaries is becoming a trigger for restiveness on our campuses. The office of the Accountant General has also withheld the remittance of pension to our Pension Fund administration (PFA).
For the avoidance of doubt, ASUU will stop at nothing to defend and enforce the full implementation of the Agreement for the benefit of all our members and the overall interest of Nigeria’s public universities and Nigeria. NEC will hold an emergency meeting in the next few weeks, to re appraise the state of implementation of the FGN/ASUU Agreement and chart a decisive way forward.
IV. CONVERSION OF NON-ACADEMIC STAFF TO ACADEMIC STAFF
The attention of our union has been drawn to the upsurge of Registrars, Bursars and other senior administrative and technical staff converting to academic staff in Nigerian public universities without following the due process. Oftentimes, these categories of staff lay claim to academic status for reason of undergoing postgraduate programmes. In certain instances, Deputy Registrars with PhD degrees got converted to Lecturer I at the point of entry with personalized salaries. There are also instances of Registrars being converted to Senior Lecturer or Reader on the excuse of presenting some questionable publications and records of proxy teaching!
ASUU finds this trend highly disturbing. We call on Vice-Chancellors and the National Universities Commission (NUC) to live up to their billing and put a firm stop to this anomaly. Our union is not averse to changing career lines in the universities. However, non-teaching staff who wish to change to teaching/academic cadre shall normally participate in selection interviews guided by extant conditions and criteria, not by ‘arangee’ conversions.
University must advertise and qualified internal candidates must apply along with external candidates. In universities where the laws allow for conversion, it is usually treated as a fresh appointment into the academic cadre. While academic qualification is a pre-requisite for recruitment into lectureship, it is not sufficient. Concerned authorities must therefore rise in defense of this critical and ethical foundation of the academic profession and academia.
V. TETFUND POLICY OF TENABLE AND NON-TENABLE UNIVERSITIES
ASUU is uncomfortable with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund’s (TETFund) policy of tenable and non-tenable universities in selecting beneficiaries for local postgraduate studies under its Academic Staff Training and Development (AST&D) scheme. The core mandate of TETFund is to manage, disburse and monitor 2% education tax funds collected from registered companies to rehabilitate, restore and consolidate public tertiary educational institutions across the country. TETFund cannot therefore jump into a regulatory role of deciding which university Nigerians would attend or which ones they would not. If this trend continues, a time will come when the preferred universities would be overcrowded and supervision of candidates would become a problem in the face of acute shortage of experts in nearly all academic programmes.
In addition, labelling many Nigerian public universities as “non-tenable” is not only discriminatory, it could educe enrolment rates, demoralise senior academics and experts in these universities. Why not upgrade all first to third generations of public universities where experienced academics are likely to be found to the expected standard? We must stress that deploying TETFund’s resources to fund any efforts towards institutionalising discriminatory ethos is not known to the TETFund Act of 2011. ASUU shall continue to oppose any policy that makes TETFund vulnerable to personal and group interests in whatever guise.
VI. STATE OF THE NATION
Recent political developments evoke palpable fears in both the young and the old. As the 2027 general elections draw closer, the atmosphere is increasingly toxified by thuggery, brigandage and political killings fueled by entrenched politics of bitterness and winner-takes-all. This has compounded the intractable insecurity problem everywhere, including educational and religious institutions, and complicated ongoing conversations around State Police which political class currently brandish as the magic wand. If the depressing signals are anything to go by, the simmering tension may soon erupt like a volcano in the face of everybody. As things stand now, the political class are the most significant and dangerous threat to Nigeria’s security. They are the “tribe” that threatens us all.
ASUU notes with regrets that pervasive corruptive acts of procurement violations, questionable contract awards, and non-prioritisation of infrastructural projects by the ruling class, among others, have worsened the existential threats confronting Nigerians and Nigeria. Recently, Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency came out through the Chief Executive officer to say they have completed the installation and connection of solar farms to 15 Nigerian universities. Nothing could be further from the truth! We have received information from our branches, that though some installations have taken places in some of the 15 universities, they are either not working (FUPRE), some are World bank Projects (UNAAB), that of NAU is not working, while the one installed in UDUS has had one breakdown after the other. Government must realise, that it is easier to mobilise for tax reform, electoral processes or internal security when those who manage the people’s affairs are open, transparent and accountable, not merely professing to do so. The ruled in today’s Nigeria do not trust their rulers because their hopes have been raised and dashed many times over. No nation can experience people-oriented development without an appreciable trust quotient. And certainly not where citizens live in perpetual fear of their rulers.
Nigeria’s rapidly increasing population is not matched by corresponding investment in critical sectors. Of particular concern is the declining proportion (in real value) of the annual national budget allocated to education, which remains far below the 15-20% UNFPA prescription for underdeveloped countries such as Nigeria. The prolonged regime of underfunding of education and health provision has weakened educational infrastructure, crippled impactful research, undermined meaningful teaching and learning, and ultimately arrested the nation’s human capital development. The unprecedented rise in the cost of healthcare, energy and agricultural production since the IMF/World Bank-induced massive devaluation of the national currency has made basic necessities of life unaffordable to the poor and marginalised majority.
Nigeria is at a critical juncture where the people must be put first in the scheme of things. This is most assured pathway to averting the looming crisis as the nation gravitates towards the 2027 elections. The IMF/World-dictated “poverty alleviation” policies must give way to more participatory and inclusive programs that address the increasing structural poverty, unemployment and inequality in more fundamental ways. Federal and subnational governments must prioritize agricultural and industrial production and social protection rather than deepening dependency and hardship through foreign-packaged half-measures. Government should suspend unnecessary borrowing and explore sustainable alternative sources of financing development projects that bear direct relevance to the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians. While plucking leakages, recovering stolen public resources and strengthening accountability. As an underdeveloped country yearning for rapid development, it is the rich that must be taxed to give the poor a life worth living.
VII. CONCLUSION
Nigerian governments (Federal, State and Local Council) must redirect their socio-economic policies and projects to prioritise the people on whose behalf they hold public resources in trust. ASUU calls for a comprehensive review of Nigeria’s education system to reflect the country’s peculiar socio-economic, cultural, technological and developmental realities rather than merely replicating models developed for other societies. Greater attention must be given to research, technical education, agriculture, innovation and the development of skills relevant to Nigeria’s needs. To derive maximum benefits from Nigeria’s public universities, however, the Federal and State governments must take urgent steps to address all outstanding issues of academic staff welfare as well as all matters arising from the FGN-ASUU Agreement of December 2025.
Thank you for your attention and partnership.
Solidarity Forever.
Christopher G. Piwuna
President
13th August, 2026
