ASUU warns of nationwide strike over unpaid salaries
The Academic Staff Union of Universities has warned of a fresh nationwide strike unless federal and state governments address unpaid salaries, unremitted deductions and delays in implementing its December 2025 agreement.
The union said its national executive council reached the position at an emergency meeting at its headquarters at the University of Abuja on 5 September.
ASUU’s president, Christopher Piwuna, said uncertainty over salary payments and unresolved welfare demands was fuelling tensions across public universities. The union said the warning did not amount to an immediate declaration of a nationwide strike, but that its suspended industrial action could resume without a satisfactory government response.
At the centre of the dispute are three and a half months of withheld salaries, incomplete implementation of the 2025 agreement, outstanding deductions from lecturers’ pay and concerns about university autonomy.
Piwuna said lecturers were repeatedly having to challenge university managements over when their salaries would arrive and how much they would receive.
The union acknowledged recent efforts by the education ministry to settle outstanding salaries at federal universities of agriculture, but said a sustained response to its wider demands remained absent.
ASUU said three and a half months of the seven and a half months’ salaries withheld during Muhammadu Buhari’s administration were still unpaid. While President Bola Tinubu’s government had paid four months, the union said the outstanding balance continued to cause financial and psychological hardship.
It argued that lecturers had completed the academic work associated with the withheld pay and should receive their entitlements. It also estimated that the income had lost more than half its value since 2022.
The union raised further concerns over pension contributions, cooperative deductions and union dues deducted from salaries but allegedly left unremitted for several months. It said the sums ran into billions of naira and that discussions with the government had yielded limited progress.
ASUU commended Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Katsina and Borno states for beginning implementation of the 2025 agreement. It also noted commitments by Kano, Edo, Plateau, Taraba, Gombe and Bayelsa to begin implementation in September or October.
The warning comes amid disputes at several state universities. ASUU branches at the University of Medical Sciences in Ondo and Plateau State University have declared indefinite strikes over demands including arrears and implementation of the agreement.
At Sule Lamido University in Kafin Hausa, the union announced a two-week warning strike from 15 September over unresolved issues with the Jigawa state government. It warned that the action could become indefinite.
Meanwhile, the federal government announced on 9 September that it had released funds for the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance for academic staff in federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, covering January to August 2026.
The education minister, Tunji Alausa, said the payment formed part of the implementation of the 2025 agreement.
ASUU maintained that other central provisions remained unresolved and appealed to students, parents, labour leaders and the public to press for action before the dispute escalated.
The union said it remained open to negotiations with federal and state governments, but warned that a stable academic calendar depended on addressing lecturers’ welfare.