ASUU’s Fresh Strike Threat: What Has Gone Wrong Since The 2025 Agreement?

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is once again threatening to shut down Nigeria’s public universities, barely months after the Federal Government and the union reached a new agreement aimed at ending years of industrial disputes in the university system.

Although ASUU has not announced a fresh nationwide strike date, it says it may reactivate its suspended action without further notice if the government fails to address its outstanding demands.

The latest warning followed an emergency meeting of ASUU’s National Executive Council held at the union’s national secretariat at the University of Abuja on September 5, 2026.

The union said its frustration had deepened over the poor and inconsistent implementation of the December 2025 Federal Government-ASUU agreement, alongside unresolved issues concerning withheld salaries, unremitted deductions, university autonomy and the welfare of academics.

For students, parents and university authorities, the development has revived an all-too-familiar fear, another disruption to the academic calendar.

ASUU has made it clear that the issue is no longer simply about the implementation of a new agreement, but about what it considers a broader failure by governments at both federal and state levels to address the conditions that continue to undermine Nigeria’s university system.

The December 2025 agreement was regarded as an important development after years of negotiations and industrial action. ASUU described the agreement as the product of more than eight years of struggle.
However, less than a year after it was reached, the union says implementation has been uneven, with some governments making progress while others have allegedly failed to take concrete steps.

According to ASUU President, Prof Christopher Piwuna, the union had already raised concerns in August over the handling of the agreement but saw little evidence of a comprehensive response.

“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,” Piwuna said.

The union’s position is that partial implementation cannot guarantee industrial peace in the university system. It has therefore placed both federal and state governments under renewed pressure to fulfil their commitments before the situation escalates.

Yet, ASUU acknowledges that the picture is not the same across all states. The union specifically commended Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, for publicly announcing the adoption of the 2025 agreement and apologising to the union over bureaucratic bottlenecks that had caused delays and distortions.

ASUU also identified Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Katsina and Borno as states where implementation of the agreement has commenced. It noted that Kano, Edo, Plateau, Taraba, Gombe and Bayelsa had pledged to commence implementation in September or October.

The contrasting responses from the states underline one of the major problems confronting the agreement. While the Federal Government may sign an agreement with ASUU, implementation at state-owned universities remains heavily dependent on individual state governments.

ASUU warned that governors who continue to delay implementation could push their universities into industrial crises. The union said authorities of affected universities had been notified of planned strike actions where satisfactory progress was not recorded.

Perhaps the most emotionally charged issue for university lecturers remains the payment of withheld salaries.

ASUU said lecturers are still owed three-and-a-half months out of the seven-and-a-half months of salaries withheld during the 2022 strike under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The union also acknowledged President Bola Tinubu’s administration for releasing four months of the withheld salaries, but argued that the outstanding balance remained a major source of frustration among its members.

“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,” ASUU said.

The value of the outstanding salaries has also been affected by the sharp decline in the purchasing power of the naira since 2022. ASUU said its members had suffered significant financial and psychological hardship because of the withheld income, which it claimed had lost more than half of its value since the salaries were earned.

For the lecturers, the issue goes beyond arrears. They argue that they performed the work for which the salaries were withheld and should not continue to bear the consequences of an industrial dispute that has since been resolved.

ASUU is consequently asking the government to release the remaining salaries as part of efforts to rebuild confidence between lecturers and the government.

Billions in unremitted deductions

Another unresolved issue is the alleged failure to remit deductions made from lecturers’ salaries.

ASUU said deductions for pension contributions, cooperative societies and union check-off dues, running into billions of naira, have not been appropriately remitted for several months.

The union described the situation as a double financial loss for its members because they are denied the immediate use of the money while also losing potential returns that could have accrued from investments.

ASUU further alleged that the problem may be linked to its opposition to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), arguing that the continued withholding of the funds could amount to punishment for lecturers who rejected the system.

The union warned that it was prepared to mobilise its members for industrial action if the matter was not resolved.

The autonomy battle

Beyond salaries and allowances, ASUU’s latest warning reflects a deeper concern over university autonomy and the relationship between university governing councils, state governments and vice-chancellors.

The union’s criticism of the Osun State Government over the tenure extension of the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Clement Adebooye, illustrates this concern.

At the inauguration of the university’s reconstituted Governing Council on September 1, Governor Ademola Adeleke announced that Adebooye’s tenure would be extended by two years, from January 2027 to January 2029.

ASUU strongly opposed the decision, arguing that the university law provides for a single five-year tenure for the vice-chancellor and does not permit an extension.

The union accused the governor of hurriedly amending the law to accommodate the extension and warned that the development could undermine the principles established by the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act, 2012.

ASUU also expressed disappointment with Adebooye, who previously served as a branch secretary of the union at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, for accepting the extension.

The dispute highlights how questions of university governance can quickly become labour issues, particularly when academic unions believe that established laws and institutional autonomy are being compromised.

ASUU’s latest statement also comes against the backdrop of growing political activity ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The union noted that the lifting of the ban on electioneering campaigns on August 19 had shifted political attention towards the coming elections. It argued that governments were celebrating macroeconomic growth while many Nigerians continued to struggle with the rising cost of living.

For ASUU, the university system cannot be isolated from the wider economic difficulties confronting the country. Lecturers, like other workers, face higher living costs while universities continue to grapple with funding, infrastructure and welfare challenges.

The union therefore endorsed the call by Nigeria Labour Congress President Joe Ajaero for a review of the national minimum wage and advocated the indexing of wages to inflation to protect workers’ purchasing power.

The union is presenting the university crisis as part of a larger problem of declining living standards, inadequate public investment and weakening confidence in government commitments.

For now, the most important distinction is that ASUU has not declared a fresh nationwide strike.

However, its September 5 NEC resolution has placed the country on notice that the suspended strike could be activated without another warning if the outstanding issues remain unresolved.

“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,” Piwuna said.

The warning means the coming weeks could be critical for the government and the university system. Recent developments at state universities suggest that industrial unrest is already emerging at institutional and state levels, even as the national union keeps the option of a nationwide shutdown open.