The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to resume its suspended nationwide strike if the Federal Government and some state governments fail to address outstanding salary arrears and fully implement the agreement reached with the union in December 2025.
ASUU National President, Prof. Chris Piwuna, said the union could activate the suspended industrial action without further notice if urgent steps were not taken to resolve the issues affecting university lecturers.
Piwuna said the decision followed an emergency meeting of the union’s National Executive Council held on September 5, 2026.
He said the implementation of the December 2025 Federal Government-ASUU agreement had been disappointing despite the long struggle that preceded its signing.
Among the outstanding issues, he listed three-and-a-half months of withheld salaries, unremitted pension and other third-party deductions, alleged violations of university autonomy and the deteriorating welfare of academic staff.
He warned that ASUU would not accept responsibility for the consequences of another strike if the government failed to resolve the issues.
The union acknowledged recent efforts by the Federal Ministry of Education to settle some salary arrears owed lecturers in Federal Universities of Agriculture but said the measures had not provided a lasting solution to the wider crisis.
Piwuna said lecturers were still being subjected to uncertainty over the payment of their monthly salaries and were forced to repeatedly engage university authorities over their entitlements.
ASUU, however, commended governors who had begun implementing the 2025 agreement in their state-owned universities.
It praised Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, for announcing the full adoption of the agreement and apologising to the union over bureaucratic delays that affected its implementation.
The union also identified Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Katsina and Borno as states where implementation had commenced.
It said governors in Kano, Edo, Plateau, Taraba, Gombe and Bayelsa had pledged to begin implementation in September or October.
ASUU warned that governors who continued to ignore the agreement could trigger a major industrial crisis in state-owned universities.
The union also criticised Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke over his decision to extend the tenure of the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University (UNIOSUN), Prof. Clement Adebooye, by two years.
Adeleke announced the extension on September 1 during the inauguration of the university’s reconstituted Governing Council.
ASUU described the decision as unacceptable, arguing that the university’s law provides for a single five-year tenure for the vice-chancellor without provision for an extension.
The union alleged that the law was hurriedly amended to accommodate the extension and warned that the move could undermine safeguards against controversial tenure extensions in the university system.
It also urged Adebooye to reconsider his decision before the expiration of his legally recognised tenure in January 2027.
On the withheld salaries, ASUU said the outstanding three-and-a-half months remained unpaid despite repeated appeals.
The union acknowledged President Bola Tinubu’s payment of four months out of the seven-and-a-half months withheld from lecturers following the 2022 strike but said the unpaid balance had subjected affected academics to severe financial and psychological hardship. Reports in August also confirmed that the three-and-a-half-month balance remained one of ASUU’s major grievances.
ASUU further alleged that billions of naira deducted from lecturers’ salaries for pension contributions, cooperative societies and union dues had not been remitted for several months.
The union expressed concern that government attention was increasingly shifting towards the 2027 elections and argued that the economic gains being highlighted by the government had yet to translate into improved living conditions for Nigerians.
It also backed the Nigeria Labour Congress President, Joe Ajaero, in calling for an immediate review of the national minimum wage and urged the government to link wages to inflation to protect workers’ purchasing power.
ASUU appealed to students, parents, labour leaders, media practitioners and other Nigerians to prevail on the government to resolve the brewing crisis.
The union said it remained open to negotiations with the Federal and state governments but warned that it could not guarantee an uninterrupted academic calendar at the expense of the welfare and survival of university lecturers.
ASUU therefore maintained that it could activate its suspended strike action without further notice if the outstanding issues were not urgently addressed.
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