The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has warned that it may resume its suspended nationwide strike if the Federal Government and state governments fail to resolve outstanding issues affecting university lecturers.
The union said the issues include the incomplete implementation of the December 2025 agreement, payment of the remaining 3.5 months of withheld salaries and the remittance of billions of naira deducted from lecturers’ earnings.
ASUU President, Christopher Piwuna, disclosed this in a statement issued on Friday following an emergency meeting of the union’s National Executive Council at the University of Abuja.
According to the union, the December 2025 agreement was reached after more than eight years of negotiations but has yet to be fully implemented by the Federal Government and several state governments.
ASUU warned that it could direct its members to embark on another nationwide strike if the outstanding matters were not addressed promptly.
“Unless immediate and concrete steps are taken to FULLY and COMPREHENSIVELY address issues bordering the welfare and well-being of Nigerian academics, ASUU-NEC will not accept any blame for calling out its members on a nationwide strike action within the shortest time possible,” the union said.
The lecturers’ union commended Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, as well as the governments of Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Katsina and Borno for beginning the implementation of the agreement.
It added that Kano, Edo, Plateau, Taraba, Gombe and Bayelsa states had indicated plans to begin implementation in September or October.
However, ASUU urged other state governments to act quickly to prevent their universities from being plunged into what it described as an “industrial crisis of monumental proportions.”
On withheld salaries, the union noted that the Tinubu administration had released four months out of the 7.5 months withheld during the previous administration.
It nevertheless demanded payment of the outstanding 3.5 months.
“We have consistently acknowledged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for paying four (4) out of the withheld salaries. However, leaving out the unpaid balance does not give his government the full credit of a labour-friendly administration,” ASUU stated.
The union also alleged that pension contributions, cooperative deductions and union check-off dues deducted from lecturers’ salaries had not been remitted for several months.
It said the outstanding payments and deductions, coupled with the slow implementation of the 2025 agreement, were threatening industrial harmony in the nation’s public universities.
“In no mistaken terms, ASUU posits that the non- or haphazard implementation of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement by federal and state governments is a recipe for industrial crisis in Nigeria’s public universities,” the union warned.
ASUU consequently called on the Federal Government and the affected state governments to urgently resolve the issues, warning that it would not be held responsible if the suspended industrial action was revived.
“ASUU-NEC resolved to notify all concerned that the Union may activate its suspended strike action without any further notice if the critical issues raised in this release are not speedily addressed,” the union said.
