(ASUU. Photo Credit: Premuim Times)
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Calabar Zone, has threatened to embark on a total, comprehensive and indefinite strike across state-owned universities in the zone over the failure of state governments to implement the 2025 Federal Government/ASUU agreement.
The proposed industrial action would affect state-owned universities in Abia, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi and Cross River states.
Speaking at a press briefing in Calabar on Tuesday, the union expressed concern over what it described as the refusal of the affected state governments to implement the agreement, despite its adoption by the Federal Government and eight state universities in other parts of the country.
ASUU singled out the University of Cross River State (UNICROSS), where lecturers have been on strike for 46 days, describing the situation as particularly alarming.
According to the union, academic staff at the institution have been receiving only half salaries for years, while one lecturer has reportedly died amid the lingering welfare crisis.
Addressing journalists alongside chairpersons of ASUU branches from the affected universities, the Zonal Coordinator, Comrade Ikechukwu Igwenyi, said copies of the agreement, signed in December 2025, had been sent to the affected state governments, but no action had been taken.
“Our members in UNICROSS are already in the trenches, not just over the non-implementation of the 2025 Agreement, but also over the non-payment of full salaries for years,” Igwenyi said.
He alleged that check-off dues, cooperative deductions and National Housing Fund contributions deducted from lecturers’ salaries had also remained unremitted.
The ASUU leader said the union would no longer tolerate what he described as the “theatrics of deception” by the governors, alleging that lecturers were being owed three-and-a-half months’ salary arrears in addition to outstanding third-party deductions.
He insisted that lecturers in state-owned universities were entitled to the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA), Earned Academic Allowances and Professorial Allowance contained in the 2025 agreement, just like their counterparts in federal universities.
The union called on the visitors to the affected state universities to immediately settle all outstanding salary arrears, allowances and welfare benefits owed to lecturers, warning that failure to do so would result in a total shutdown of academic activities across state-owned universities in the Calabar Zone.
ASUU also appealed to parents, traditional rulers, religious leaders and members of the state Houses of Assembly to prevail on the governors to resolve the issues.
The union described the continued silence over the 46-day strike at UNICROSS as “complicity,” noting that students had remained out of school while lecturers continued to suffer severe economic hardship due to prolonged half-salary payments.
