ASUU Protests Nationwide, Warns of Looming Strike 

University lecturers across Nigeria took to the streets on Tuesday in a coordinated protest against what they described as the Federal Government’s failure to address their long-standing grievances.

At the University of Jos, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) marched before addressing journalists, where they firmly rejected the newly introduced Tertiary Institution Staff Support Fund loan scheme. The branch chairperson, Joseph Molwus, said the initiative was a “poison chalice” that would worsen the plight of lecturers instead of providing relief.

According to Molwus, what lecturers need is not loans but the payment of entitlements long withheld by the government. “How can the government ask us to borrow money to pay for healthcare, school fees and basic needs when it is still owing us withheld salaries, allowances, and arrears?” he asked.

The same message echoed across other campuses. In Lagos, placard-carrying ASUU members demanded the immediate payment of arrears, improved welfare, and a fresh renegotiation of the 2009 FG-ASUU agreement. At the University of Benin and the Federal University Gusau, the warning was clear—unless the government honours its promises, another strike may be inevitable.

Leading the Gusau protest, union chairman Abdulrahman Adamu lamented that the Federal Government had abandoned universities, leaving funding almost entirely to TETFUND. He revealed that lecturers are still owed three and a half months’ salaries from the 2020 strike, alongside unpaid promotion arrears and wage award arrears spanning between 25 to 35 months.

The frustration was no different in Jigawa State, where staff of the Federal University Dutse joined the nationwide protest. The branch chairman, Isma’il Ahmad, accused the government of ignoring the hardship facing lecturers and refusing to implement the 2009 agreement. He noted that current salaries are hardly enough for survival.

ASUU’s demands remain clear—settle all outstanding obligations, which include salaries, earned academic allowances, promotion arrears, revitalisation funds, wage awards, and unremitted third-party deductions. The union argued that offering loans was no substitute for fulfilling legal obligations.

The lecturers also accused the government of abandoning collective bargaining, despite years of engagement and reports from various committees. They warned that the industrial peace universities had enjoyed for two years was now hanging by a thread.

Citing President Bola Tinubu’s 2022 campaign pledge that university strikes would not happen under his administration, ASUU leaders expressed disappointment that two years on, nothing has changed. They urged the president to personally intervene and “renew the hope” of lecturers before universities are once again plunged into crisis.

While stressing that they remain open to dialogue, ASUU warned that patience is running thin. Unless urgent steps are taken, the country could soon face another prolonged shutdown of academic activities.