The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, has said that the federal government has never signed an agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
On Tuesday, ASUU protested across campuses over poor welfare and the non-implementation of the 2009 agreement.
But yesterday, the minister, while speaking to journalists, said such an agreement never existed and hinted that a committee had been set up to review the draft copy.
Alausa added that the meeting reviewed ASUU proposals line by line, which the committee’s technical team would fine-tune.
He said the team would submit a “clean report” that would be forwarded to the Yayale Ahmed-led Committee to renegotiate the 2009 ASUU/FG Agreement.
“We want an agreement where every component is actionable and feasible.
”Nigerians can be assured that this government will keep our schools open and ensure our children remain in classrooms,” he stated.
He added that, unlike in the past, the Ministry of Justice would be fully involved in ensuring agreements comply with constitutional provisions.
The drama surrounding negotiations between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) deepened on Thursday. The union denied receiving any formal notice of a scheduled meeting despite official confirmation from the Ministry of Education that talks were to be held in Abuja.
While the Ministry had earlier hinted that a meeting was to take place at noon, its attention shifted instead to the recognition of Miss Nafisa Abdullah Aminu, a 17-year-old Yobe State student who recently won a world contest in English Language Skills at the 2025 TeenEagle Global Finals in London.
Speaking with our correspondent, a source from ASUU insisted that the union did not receive any formal invitation for a meeting.
But clarifying the situation, Minister of Education Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa explained that contrary to reports, the government’s focus yesterday was not a direct meeting with ASUU but rather an internal government session to review the union’s proposal and prepare a sustainable counteroffer.
“Today, I don’t know where the story came from that we were meeting ASUU. We did not plan to meet ASUU today. At the highest level, we met on the government side to review their proposals line by line carefully.”
Alausa stressed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had given his team a clear mandate to resolve the lingering 2009 FGN–ASUU agreement issues “once and for all.”
“When the President came in, he told Nigerians he would put this country on a path of sustainability, not just for today, but 10 years, 30 years, even into eternity. He has directed us to solve this ASUU problem permanently, not superficially,” the minister declared.
Dr. Alausa also revealed that a seven-member technical team had been set up to fine-tune the government’s counter-proposal before it was presented to the Yayale Ahmed-led renegotiation committee for onward engagement with ASUU.
According to him, the team will be chaired by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education and would include the solicitor-general of the federation, permanent secretaries of justice and labour, the chairman of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, the executive secretaries of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and TETFund, and the director-general of the Budget Office.
“We want this to be constitutional and sustainable. Previous agreements with ASUU were never truly signed by the government. They were drafts, not binding agreements. This time, every clause must be actionable, implementable, and within the government’s capacity to fund.”
The minister asserted that the era of making “bogus agreements” with the union was over. “We will not create an agreement that the government cannot implement. Nigerians must be assured that this government will keep its children in school. ASUU are good people. All our unions are good people, but we must reach an honest, truthful, and sustainable agreement,” he said.
The education minister reassured Nigerians of President Tinubu’s commitment to ending the crisis.
“This President fulfils every promise he makes. He has mandated us to work day and night to keep our universities open and our children in school. That is exactly what we are doing,” he said.
Minister’s Statement False – ASUU
Reacting to Dr. Tunji Alausa’s comment that the federal government did not sign an agreement with the union, the chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Plateau State University chapter, Dr. Monday Hassan, told our correspondent on the phone that it was false.
FG Can’t Deny What Has Been On The Table Since 2017 – ASUU
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has dismissed the federal government overnment’s claims that no agreement exists between both parties, insisting that a document has been on the negotiation table since 2017.
An ASUU source who spoke off-record told LEADERSHIP Friday that the government’s attempt to downplay the matter was misleading.
“The truth is that it is not about signing. Something that was submitted to them in February, what are they doing? Something that took 2017 to date, that is, eight years and was submitted in February. You didn’t sign it,” the source said.
The source faulted the government’s claim that the document is still in draft form, stressing that several consultations had already been concluded.
“That’s what we keep hearing. Meanwhile, the document has been on the table for months,” the ASUU official lamented.
According to him, the federal government meeting is ongoing, and the union expects the ASUU national body to brief members on the outcome of the meeting at the end of the day.
