The Academic Staff Union of Universities has warned the Federal Government and several state governments that it may resume a suspended nationwide strike.
The warning came after an emergency National Executive Council meeting at the Festus Iyayi National Secretariat in the University of Abuja, which was called due to the union’s impatience with the slow implementation of the December 2025 agreement and the remaining three-and-a-half months of withheld salaries.
A statement signed by National President Professor Christopher Piwuna blamed incomplete implementation of the new agreement, unpaid salaries and deductions, as well as a breach of university autonomy on the part of the Osun State University VC, for the call.
Lecturers across public universities have been in limbo with their calendars disrupted and emoluments frozen for years.
ASUU said while the present administration had released four months of the previously withheld salaries, the remaining owed sum continued to cause mental anguish to members.
The union concurrently condemned the two-year extension of the tenure of the VC of Osun State University, which it said was a breach of university autonomy.
ASUU publicly praised Abia, Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Katsina and Borno states for starting to implement the agreement, adding that Kano, Edo, Plateau, Taraba, Gombe and Bayelsa states had given timelines for September or October.
Sources in the campuses said local unions had already started consultations with their memberships for possible action.
Students who spoke to the sources privately lamented that another strike would add to the disruptions to graduations and professional examinations.
The union’s message has little room for lengthy negotiations. Failing for the authorities to show concrete actions of payments and policy ameliorations, the academic calendar for federal and many state universities will be disrupted again at a time when many are yet to recover from the previous interruptions.
For the students and lecturers, the reaction of the affected governments will be critical, as interruptions could turn the latest warning into a major disruption across the university system.
