What ASUU said about averting looming strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has urged Nigerians to play their part to ensure that the looming strike be averted.

Dr Alex Akanmu, Chairman of ASUU, University of Ilorin branch, made this announcement on Thursday. Akanmu also listed the outstanding demands made by the union, urging the federal government to address them.

“It is public knowledge that our salaries have remained virtually stagnant for the past 16 years, despite the clear understanding that the 2009 re negotiated agreement would be reviewed every three years. Unfortunately, it took the government a staggering eight years until 2017, to ever constitute renegotiation committee for this purpose,” he stated.

While also explaining the reason for the action, Akanmu noted that the government is still yet to sign the agreement reached in 2021, despite it appointing the committee itself.

“Successive committees including the Wale Babalakin-led joint committee, the Professor Munzali Jubril-led committee and later the Late Emeritus Professor Nimi Briggs led committee, have been set up to engage ASUU. The outcome of these engagements, was a draft agreement reached in 2021 between ASUU and the Nimi Briggs led committee. However, despite the fact that the committee was appointed by the government itself, government has refused to sign the resulting draft. In the spirit of constructive engagement, ASUU, gave the current administration led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ample time to address the persistent challenges facing the public universities, but to our dismay, no concrete effort has been made to resolve these issues,” he stated.

Akanmu also expressed the frustration of the members of the union, stressing that the government keep rolling out tactics to delay their action.

“It is important to stress that ASUU, has not forgotten that all these negotiation efforts initiated by the Federal government itself, have led nowhere, as resulting draft agreements were never implemented. A true test of the government’s sincerity now lies in how it handles the Alhaji Yayale Ahmed report, submitted since February 2025, which encapsulates all contentious issues and reflects a consensus with our union. Our members are increasingly frustrated with the government’s delay tactics so called ‘keep them talking ‘ syndrome,” he stated.