- The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nsukka Zone, has declared that the Federal Government failed to provide financial backing for the crucial bilateral agreement signed in December 2025.
- Key academic allowances, salary award arrears, promotion backlogs, and three-and-a-half months of withheld salaries from the 2022 industrial action remain completely unpaid to university lecturers.
- Union leaders caution that while they are not eager to disrupt the academic calendar, the public must hold the state entirely accountable if bureaucratic delays force public campuses to shut down.
The academic peace across Nigerian public tertiary institutions faces a fresh threat following a stern warning issued by university lecturers.
Eko Hot Blog reports that speaking at a joint press conference held at the Benue State University campus in Makurdi on Thursday, May 21, 2026, leadership from the Nsukka Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities indicated that a major industrial crisis is brewing.
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The union explicitly asked the Nigerian public to place the blame entirely on the doorsteps of the Federal Government should public universities face another total shutdown over unfulfilled administrative promises.
According to the ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Christian Opata, and the National Investment Officer, Celesine Aguoru, the current friction stems from the government’s failure to fully implement the landmark agreement reached between both parties in December 2025.
The framework, which was scheduled to structurally reshape university funding and labor relations starting in January 2026, has allegedly been stalled due to a complete lack of financial backing from the state.
Opata revealed that only minor, superficial components of the deal have been addressed, leaving core remuneration issues entirely unresolved.
The union detailed several lingering financial grievances that continue to cause deep distress among its ranks.
Specifically, the government has failed to integrate Consolidated Tools Allowances, Earned Academic Allowances, and Professorial Allowances into the Consolidated Academic Staff Salary Scale.
Furthermore, the state has yet to clear the massive backlogs arising from the 25–35 percent salary award, promotion arrears, unpaid pension remittances, cooperative contributions, and the controversial three-and-a-half months’ salaries withheld during the historic 2022 strike action.
ASUU also criticized the Ministry of Education, under Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, for bypassing the union in recent policy changes, such as the unilateral creation of a National Research Council.
Labor leaders noted that the government has deliberately stalled the inauguration of the Implementation Monitoring Committee, which was originally designed to prevent bureaucratic sabotage of the 2025 pact.
While reiterating that the union is taking all steps to avoid a full-scale strike, Aguoru urged traditional rulers, parents, and civil society groups to quickly intervene and pressure the government into honoring its signed commitments before public campuses run out of patience.
