The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to resume its suspended nationwide strike unless federal and state governments address outstanding salaries and fully implement the December 2025 agreement with the union.
ASUU said its national executive council (NEC), at an emergency meeting on September 5, resolved that the union may activate the suspended strike “without any further notice” if satisfactory progress was not recorded.
The union said three-and-a-half months of lecturers’ withheld salaries remained unpaid, while billions of naira deducted from members’ salaries for pensions, cooperative societies and union dues had also not been remitted.
In a statement by its National President, Prof Christopher Piwuna, on Thursday, ASUU said the outstanding issues had continued to undermine the welfare of university lecturers and create uncertainty across the university system.
The union acknowledged President Bola Tinubu’s administration for paying four months out of the seven-and-a-half months of salaries withheld under the previous administration, but said the remaining balance had subjected its members to severe financial and psychological hardship.
ASUU also faulted the “non- or haphazard implementation” of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement by federal and state governments, warning that the situation was a recipe for another industrial crisis in public universities.
It commended governors of Abia, Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Katsina and Borno for commencing implementation of the agreement.
The union particularly praised Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, for adopting the agreement and apologising over bureaucratic bottlenecks that delayed its implementation.
ASUU also criticised Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, over the extension of the tenure of the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof Clement Adebooye, from January 2027 to January 2029.
It argued that the extension violated the law governing the institution, which provides for a single five-year tenure for the Vice-Chancellor.
The union urged the Federal Government and state governments to urgently resolve the outstanding issues, warning that it could not guarantee an uninterrupted academic calendar at the expense of lecturers’ welfare.
“The ASUU-NEC is fully prepared to call out its members if nothing concrete is done to address this lingering problem without further delay,” the union said.
ASUU called on students, parents, labour leaders and other Nigerians to intervene before the brewing crisis escalated.
The union said its doors remained open for engagement with governments but warned that Nigerians should not blame it if it resumed the suspended industrial action.
