Public varsities face imminent paralysis, ASUU warns FG

By Jethro Ibileke

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned the federal government that public tertiary institutions in the country could face imminent paralysis, unless it stops its old tactics of disrespecting collective bargaining and binding agreements.

It further warned that the partial and non-implementation of the salary component of the 2025 FGN/ASUU agreement is a recipe for industrial crisis in our universities.

The Zonal Coordinator of Benin Zone of ASUU, Prof. Monday Igbafen, stated this on Thursday in Benin, while giving an update on the 2025 FGN/ASUU agreement and government’s failure to implement it.

The Benin Zone of ASUU comprises all public Universities in Edo Delta and Ondo State.

Igbafen noted that the agreement unveiled on January 14, 2026, by the government was expected to end of years of struggle to renegotiate the 2009 agreement and secure lasting industrial harmony in public universities, has been neglected by the government.

“Regrettably, we must report that the Nigerian State has reneged on that promise, at our just concluded National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at Modibbo Adama University, Yola, we reviewed the government’s response. Our conclusion is clear: unless urgent action is taken, we are being pushed back to the trenches,” he said.

The body further lamented that government remains insensitive to outstanding issues of unpaid arrears of the 25-35% salary award, promotion arrears, unremitied third-party deductions, salary shortfalls from IPPIS errors, and the withheld three-and-a-half months’ salaries from the 2022 strike.

This is even as it berated the Edo, Ondo, and Delta State governments for allegedly failing to implement the agreement five months after the Federal Government’s directive.

Amongst grieving issues ASUU mentioned include alleged abrupt reversal of the mother tongue policy in early childhood education undermines pedagogical evidence and national policy coherence, by the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, government’s plan to establish a campus of Coventry University in Nigeria under the Transnational Education framework was made without consultation.

Others are alleged irregular appointments, financial misappropriation, and disregard for due process by government-appointed vice chancellors, unilateral plans to scrap courses deemed “irrelevant,” a move it said undermines university autonomy and academic freedom.

“We condemned the alleged hijack and derailment of Nigeria’s research and development agenda by external agents and their local collaborators, and an alleged attempt to arbitrarily scrap academic programmes in Nigerian universities.

“We warn that public universities face imminent paralysis if the government continues its old tactics of disrespecting collective bargaining and binding agreements,” Igbafen said.