The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Tuesday staged coordinated protests across campuses nationwide to press home long-standing demands from the Federal Government, two days before a crucial meeting scheduled for Thursday in Abuja.

From Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, to Federal University of Lafia, University of Ilorin, University of Calabar, Abia State University, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Federal University of Technology Akure, Plateau State University, University of Maiduguri, and Osun State University, lecturers marched with placards, chanting solidarity songs and warning of an imminent strike if government continued to ignore their plight.

Across the campuses, the demands remained consistent: implementation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, release of three and a half months withheld salaries, payment of outstanding 25–35 per cent salary arrears, promotion arrears, revitalisation of universities, rejection of the government’s proposed tertiary institution staff loan scheme, and adoption of UTAS over IPPIS to preserve university autonomy.

At OAU, ASUU Chairperson, Prof. Tony Odiwe, said lecturers had remained on the same salary scale since 2009 and accused the government of deliberately stalling on the report of the Yayale Ahmed renegotiation committee submitted in February 2025.

He warned that the government would be held responsible if industrial peace on campuses collapsed.

Similarly, ASUU’s Akure Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Adeola Egbedokun, declared at FUOYE that patience among academics had reached a breaking point.

“Our members teach on empty stomachs, live in debt, and can no longer afford basic needs. If the government chooses provocation over responsibility, then it alone must bear the consequences,” he said.

In Lafia, ASUU Branch Chairperson, Sunday Orinya, accused the government of deceit and neglect, lamenting the deaths of lecturers due to pauperisation and hardship. He reiterated demands for withheld salaries, promotion arrears, and proper funding of universities.

At Plateau State University, ASUU members were joined by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Shedrack Best, and the National President, Prof. Chris Piwuna.

They decried poor salaries, non-payment of allowances, and enforcement of IPPIS, warning that the autonomy of universities was under siege.

In Sokoto, protests drew members from three universities, with UDUS Chairman, Prof. Nurudeen Almustapha, demanding immediate implementation of the Yayale Ahmed report and describing the government’s loan scheme as a “poisoned chalice.”

At UNILORIN, protesters carried placards reading “University workers are not slaves” and “Honour your agreement with ASUU.”

Branch Chair, Dr. Alex Akanmu, said Nigeria’s refusal to implement its own agreements had further pauperised lecturers and left the university system near collapse.

In Akure, FUTA ASUU Chair, Prof. Pius Mogaji, condemned the government’s “reckless indifference” to the Yayale Ahmed report and warned that “all options remain on the table.”

At UNICAL, Branch Chairperson, Peter Ubi, accused the government of destroying trust and pushing members into debt, while in Maiduguri, ASUU members protested poor retirement benefits, unpaid arrears, and the renaming of the institution after former President Muhammadu Buhari without consultation.

In Umuahia, Abia State University lecturers carried placards rejecting the government loan scheme and lamenting unpaid salaries.

At UNIOSUN, Chairperson, Dr. Wende Olaosebikan, criticised non-payment of salary increments and alleged victimisation of lecturers.

Across the campuses, the lecturers warned that if the Federal Government failed to act decisively at Thursday’s meeting, the fragile calm on campuses would give way to another nationwide strike.

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No fewer than 239 first-class graduates of the University of Lagos, employed as lecturers, left the institution within seven years.

Immediate past Vice-Chancellor of UNILAG, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, disclosed this on Tuesday while speaking as guest lecturer at The PUNCH Forum, themed: “Innovative Funding of Functional Education in the Digital Age,”

Reeling out statistics, Ogundipe said UNILAG retained 256 first-class graduates as lecturers between 2015 and 2022, but only 17 remained in the institution’s employ as of October 2023.

He attributed the mass exodus to poor remuneration, unconducive working conditions, and low motivation among lecturers.

Ogundipe said, “At UNILAG, we decided that those with first-class honours should be employed. What is remaining is not up to 10 per cent. All of them have gone. One day, I asked the man in charge to give me this information.

“In 2015, 86 were employed; in 2016, 82; during my time, that is, 2017 to 2022, 88 were employed. As of October 2023, only 17 were on the ground. They have gone. Very soon, in the next 10 years, you will have only females in the universities if something is not done.”

He noted that unless the government adequately funds the sector, universities would, in the next decade, be dominated by women, while poorly prepared candidates would gain entry into postgraduate programmes.

“Many of us are tired. By the time you get home, there is no light, and the Federal Government is saying they are giving us N10m to access as loans. You can see how our lives have been devalued. Can I use N10m to build a security post?

“How do you encourage them? Many of our colleagues, especially the young ones, are tired. The unfortunate thing is that two things will happen in the universities soon. Women will be the ones to occupy universities, like we have in secondary schools. Second, the calibre of people who will come for postgraduate studies will be people who are not supposed to come,” he added.

Ogundipe lamented chronic underfunding of the education sector, noting that both federal and state allocations had consistently remained below 10 per cent, far short of UNESCO’s recommended 15 to 26 per cent.

He urged legislators to enact a law mandating that each first-generation university receive at least N1bn annually to address decayed infrastructure.

According to him, many universities are forced to rely on Internally Generated Revenue, which ought to be channelled into research.

Ogundipe, who is also Pro-Chancellor of Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, lamented that infrastructure, technology, teachers’ remuneration, research support, and digital facilities in universities were either overstretched or completely absent.

“In the period from 2015 to 2025, Nigeria’s education sector has faced tremendous fiscal restraint. Federal budget allocations — even after headline increases in absolute naira terms — have consistently remained below 10 per cent, and most years hover between 4.5 and 7.5 per cent.

“The consequences of chronic underfunding are immediate and profound: Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children worldwide, estimated at between 10 and 22 million. Over 60 per cent of primary education funding is absorbed by teacher salaries, often with little left for capital expenditure or innovation,” he said.

Ogundipe advocated innovative funding strategies beyond government allocations, including public-private partnerships, alumni endowments, philanthropy, education bonds, optimising digital platforms, and linking funding to measurable outcomes.

He said, “UNESCO positions innovative financing as a critical tool for bridging the nearly $100bn annual financing gap impeding educational attainment in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

“Innovative mechanisms for education include shared risk/reward models for infrastructure, investors repaid only if outcomes are achieved, risk capital to support EdTech and innovative schools, leveraging the Nigerian diaspora for targeted investments, debt swaps for education, education technology grants, corporate donations, and capacity-building linked to business and reputation.”

While urging state and Federal Governments to raise allocations, he also identified critical roles for the private sector, alumni, civil society, faith-based organisations, and donor agencies.

“The private sector should see education support not just as social responsibility but as enlightened self-interest in building the workforce, the talent, and the markets of tomorrow. Invest not only in infrastructure, but in people, curricula, and research that advance national development.

“To alumni, home and abroad, remember that the institutions that made you now need you. Give, mentor, endow, advise, and advocate for your alma mater and the next generation.

“To civil society and faith-based groups, continue to be the vanguards of inclusion, equity, and grassroots school transformation. To the Nigerian media, lead the narrative, demand reforms, report boldly and analytically, and make education funding a national priority.

“To international and donor agencies, partner with us, but let us increasingly build our domestic resource mobilisation and institutional resilience. Above all, to every Nigerian, let us see education as the most sacred trust we must pass to our children. Our fingerprints, our footprints, our names should be found in the library buildings, the digital labs, the scholarships, and the lives changed,” Ogundipe said.

PUNCH management staff at the forum included Executive Director, Business Development and Innovation, Mrs Valerie Omowunmi Tunde-Obe; Chairman, Editorial Board, Mr Obafemi Obadare; General Manager, Production, Mr Olayinka Popoola; and Manager, Advertisement, Mrs Mary Ubani.

Also in attendance were the Editor, PUNCH Digital, Mr Lekan Adetayo; Deputy Editor, The PUNCH, Mr Tana Aiyejina; Associate Editor, News, Dr Ramon Oladimeji; and Head of Training, PUNCH Media Foundation, Mr Dele Aina.

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The National Association of Nigerian Students has threatened to shut down critical infrastructure nationwide if the Federal Government fails to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, which has again warned of a possible nationwide strike.

NANS Assistant General Secretary, Emmanuel Adejuwon, in an interview expressed deep concern over ASUU’s latest threat, vowing that the union would “mobilise Nigerian students for massive nationwide protests that will shut down roads, airports, government offices, and critical infrastructure.”

“Let it be on record: if this strike is not averted, we will bring the country to a standstill until the future of Nigerian students is secured. The time for games is over. The Federal Government must act now. ASUU must act responsibly. And Nigerian students will not sit idle while our future is wasted,” the NANS leader said.

Adejuwon stressed that only the children of the masses are negatively impacted by ASUU strike, saying, “This strike must not be allowed to happen.”

“It is obvious that strike actions only inflict pain and suffering on the children of ordinary Nigerians, the masses who struggle day and night to keep their children in school. The politicians and government officials whose failures created this crisis are not affected; their children are comfortably schooling abroad or in expensive private universities. If the children of these politicians were in our public institutions, this issue would have been resolved immediately.”

He accused the Federal Government of endless promises and insincerity, saying students had grown weary of “being victims of leadership irresponsibility.”

“We demand that the Federal Government, without delay, meet its obligations to ASUU and resolve all outstanding issues. Enough of the endless promises, excuses, and insincerity. Nigerian students are tired of being victims of leadership irresponsibility,” he declared.

While demanding government action, Adejuwon also called on ASUU to rethink its tactics.

“At the same time, we call on ASUU leadership to reconsider the weaponisation of strike as the only tool of engagement. Every strike action destroys our academic calendar, elongates our years in school, and diminishes the quality of our education. The lecturers must understand that their struggle, no matter how just, should not become a weapon against the same students they claim to fight for,” he said.

ASUU presses demands

Meanwhile, ASUU branches across the country, on Monday, stressed their demands, threatening that another strike was imminent if the Federal Government failed to act.

In Ibadan, ASUU’s Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Biodun Olaniran, speaking at a news conference on Monday, urged the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of the Yayale Ahmed report submitted in February to avert another strike.

He said the report captured all contentious issues between the union and government and represented a consensus after years of negotiations, but had been left unimplemented.

“The true test of government’s sincerity lies in how it handles the Yayale Ahmed report,” Olaniran said. “Our members are frustrated with delay tactics and are no longer willing to be dragged along endlessly. Implementing this report is the surest way to restore confidence and industrial peace.”

Olaniran listed concerns including the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement on sustainable funding of universities, victimisation of union members in LASU, KSU and FUTO, outstanding 25–35 per cent salary awards, unpaid third-party deductions, and over four years of unpaid promotion arrears.

He faulted the continued use of the IPPIS platform for payment of members, which the union had long rejected, and lamented the non-payment of earned academic allowances.

“Many of our members cannot provide education for their wards and have turned to borrowing to meet obligations,” he said. “Poor funding, withheld salaries, non-payment of promotion arrears, and failure to mainstream earned academic allowances have worsened our plight and contributed to brain drain.”

On autonomy, Olaniran decried “the persistent erosion of university autonomy by the government with alarming impunity.”

“ASUU has strongly opposed the unlawful dissolution of Governing Councils in public universities, even where no misconduct has been reported and the councils had not completed their statutory tenure,” he added.

Chairpersons of ASUU branches from UI, UNILORIN, LAUTECH, UNIOSUN, KWASU and Emmanuel Alayande University of Education attended the briefing.

Also in Abuja, the ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Al-Amin Abdullahi, reiterated the union’s demand for the implementation of the 2009 Agreement and the release of three and a half months of withheld salaries.

“There is a crisis affecting universities in Nigeria, and it is not just a problem for ASUU; it is a problem for the entire country,” Abdullahi said. “The purposeful mortgage of a nation’s future and the endangerment of generations yet to be born is the result of a nation’s disregard of education.”

He listed the union’s demands to include payment of promotion arrears, release of third-party deductions, one year arrears of the 25/35 per cent salary award, and adoption of UTAS as the university payment system.

“It is impossible for a nation to advance beyond the standard of its university system. Yet successive governments have systematically underfunded universities, leaving overcrowded classrooms, inadequately equipped laboratories, and inhabitable hostels. This neglect has created unconducive learning environments and a decline in global ranking of Nigerian universities,” Abdullahi warned.

He said that in line with UNESCO’s convention, both federal and state governments must prioritise education through increased annual budgetary allocations.

In Uyo, the Calabar Zone of ASUU rejected the recently launched Tertiary Institution Staff Loan Scheme, describing it as “an insult to the sensibilities of tertiary workers and the height of mockery of the Nigerian university system.”

Zonal Coordinator, Dr. Ikechukwu Igwenyi of Ebonyi State University, said the government was using the scheme as a distraction from its failure to implement a new salary structure and honour agreements.

“It insults our sensibilities that a government that pays its workforce with an outdated salary structure adopted 17 years ago will refuse to renegotiate the same salary since 2012, refuse to pay third-party deductions for almost a year, and refuse to pay arrears of promotion—yet it comes up with an impossible and slavish loan in a depressed economy,” Igwenyi said.

He accused government of “puerile duplicity and infantile cunning,” dragging the union and public into believing in dialogues whose outcomes were never implemented.

“How can government owe its workforce and turn around to offer impoverished workers an impossible loan scheme? How can it impose loan recovery on staff unions as guarantors, as if we are employers of tertiary workers?” he asked.

“We therefore make bold to reject the Tertiary Institution Staff Support Loan and everything it represents because it has been described as a poison chalice.”

Igwenyi warned that the union’s planned meeting with the Federal Government on August 28, 2025, would be its last. “We cannot continue to spend our meagre resources attending meetings whose outcomes are not predictable,” he said.

With frustration building among both lecturers and students, ASUU and NANS have set the August 28 meeting as a decisive moment for government to act.

For NANS’ Adejuwon, the message is clear: “The time for games is over. The Federal Government must act now. ASUU must act responsibly. And Nigerian students will not sit idle while our future is wasted.”

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