The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has issued a fresh warning that it could resume its suspended nationwide strike if governments fail to resolve outstanding issues affecting university lecturers.
The union specifically demanded the full implementation of the December 2025 agreement, payment of the outstanding 3.5 months of withheld salaries and remittance of billions of naira deducted from members’ salaries but allegedly not paid to the relevant beneficiaries.
The warning followed an emergency meeting of ASUU’s National Executive Council held at the University of Abuja.
In a statement issued in the early hours of Friday, the union’s President, Prof. Christopher Piwuna, said the Federal Government and several state governments had yet to fully implement the agreement reached with the union in December 2025.
The agreement, according to ASUU, followed more than eight years of negotiations and struggles over the conditions of service and welfare of academics.
“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.
ASUU praised Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, and the governments of Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Katsina and Borno for beginning the implementation of the agreement.
It said the governments of Kano, Edo, Plateau, Taraba, Gombe and Bayelsa had also committed to commencing implementation in September or October.
The union, however, urged other state governments to act quickly, warning that continued failure to implement the agreement could plunge their universities into an “industrial crisis of monumental proportions”.
On salary arrears, ASUU noted that the administration of President Bola Tinubu had paid four months out of the 7.5 months of salaries withheld during the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
It said the payment was appreciated but insisted that the remaining 3.5 months must be released.
“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,” the union stated.
The lecturers’ union also accused relevant authorities of failing to remit pension contributions, cooperative deductions and union check-off dues running into billions of naira.
It said the continued withholding of the deductions, alongside the incomplete implementation of the agreement and unpaid salaries, was undermining industrial harmony in the university system.
ASUU described the partial implementation of the agreement as a potential trigger for renewed industrial action.
“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,” it said.
The union consequently called for urgent intervention by the Federal Government and state governments.
It warned that failure to resolve the outstanding issues could lead to the immediate reopening of the suspended strike.
“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.
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