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From Taiwo Oluwadare, Ibadan
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ibadan Zone, has warned that Nigerian universities may witness another wave of industrial unrest over what it described as the Federal Government’s failure to fully implement the December 2025 agreement reached with the union.
The warning was issued on Thursday during a press conference addressed by ASUU Ibadan Zonal Coordinator, Dr. Biodun Olaniran, at the Academic Staff Union of Universities zonal meeting held at the University of Ibadan.
Olaniran said the union was deeply worried by what it called the “partial and outright non-implementation” of the 2025 FGN-ASUU agreement by both federal and state governments, barely five months after it was signed.
According to him, the agreement, which took over eight years of negotiations to achieve, was meant to restore industrial harmony in public universities, but government actions had continued to undermine the process.
“It is becoming clear that the Tinubu-led administration is not showing enough sincerity at addressing the crisis in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector,” he said.
He stated that while some financial components of the agreement, including Consolidated Academic Tool Allowances (CATA) and Professorial Allowances, had been partially implemented, several other components such as Earned Academic Allowances remained unpaid.
ASUU also accused the Federal Government of failing to inaugurate the Implementation Monitoring Committee meant to ensure smooth execution of the agreement and prevent bureaucratic bottlenecks.
The union further criticised the Minister of Education, Maruf Tunji Alausa, alleging that he had turned the agreement into a political campaign rather than focusing on resolving the lingering implementation issues.
The union also expressed concern over a memo issued by the Modibbo Adama University suspending payment of CATA allowances due to lack of cash backing from the Federal Government despite directives that universities should initially fund the allowances from their internally generated revenue.
On welfare matters, ASUU listed unresolved issues including withheld salaries from the 2022 strike period, promotion arrears, unpaid wage awards, and unremitted third-party deductions such as pension and cooperative contributions.
The union described the withholding of lecturers’ salaries as “weaponisation of poverty” and a breach of labour laws.
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Olaniran also lamented the condition of retired professors, especially in state universities, saying many were yet to receive harmonised pension benefits from the National Pension Commission.
The union rejected several recent education policy pronouncements by the Federal Government, including the proposed Nigeria Education Repository Databank (NERD), which it claimed could violate provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Act by compelling students to upload project reports before mobilisation for the National Youth Service Corps.
ASUU equally faulted the minister’s position on the use of English language in early childhood education and plans to establish foreign university campuses in Nigeria under the Transnational Education framework.
According to the union, such policies could undermine Nigeria’s local education system and promote “re-colonisation of education.”
The Ibadan Zone also condemned what it described as growing political interference in the administration of universities, particularly in the appointment of vice-chancellors and other principal officers.
ASUU further raised alarm over an alleged attempt by the Niger State Government to reclaim the Bosso campus of the Federal University of Technology Minna decades after the Federal Government had invested heavily in the institution’s infrastructure.
Speaking during the interaction, ASUU National Resource Person and lecturer at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Oyegoke Oyebamiji, criticised policies that he said undermine indigenous languages and local educational development.
Another ASUU leader, Ademola Aremu, faulted suggestions that some academic courses were irrelevant, insisting that humanities and social science disciplines remained critical to national development.
Aremu also decried worsening insecurity across the country, citing recent kidnappings in Oyo State and accusing security agencies of failing to effectively deploy intelligence against criminal networks.
The union linked the worsening economic hardship in Nigeria to rising fuel prices and broader global tensions, warning that workers and ordinary Nigerians were bearing the brunt of harsh economic policies.
ASUU called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Assembly, traditional rulers and other stakeholders to urgently intervene and ensure full implementation of the 2025 agreement to avert another industrial crisis in the university system.
“The increasing frustration occasioned by government’s disinterestedness in the welfare of Nigerian academics is brewing a pent-up anger which could erupt into a new wave of industrial unrest if not addressed,” the union warned.
