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| ASUU |
SOKOTO, NIGERIA — Another round of industrial unrest threatens to paralyze Nigeria’s public universities following accusations by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that the Federal Government has sabotaged the landmark FGN-ASUU agreement signed in December 2025.
Rising from a press conference on Thursday in Sokoto, the North-West Zone of the union warned that lecturers have nearly exhausted all diplomatic options, stretching their patience to its absolute limit five months after the pact was highly celebrated.
The union voiced deep frustrations over the government's complete failure to inaugurate the critical Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC), which was structurally intended to prevent bureaucratic bottlenecks. Addressing journalists, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUU Northwest—a bloc comprising 10 prominent public universities—Prof. Abubakar Sabo, disclosed that the current agitation follows critical resolutions reached during the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at Modibbo Adama University, Yola.
“The Sokoto Zone is deeply disturbed that several federal and state universities are yet to fully implement major components of the 2025 FGN ASUU Agreement,” Prof. Sabo stated, pointing out that despite the public presentation of the deal in January 2026, the executive center has failed to act. “The Federal Government has left it to individual universities to implement in a distorted, uncoordinated, and selective manner.”
At the heart of the brewing academic standoff is a long list of outstanding welfare deficits that continue to diminish the livelihood of university lecturers nationwide. ASUU decried the systematic refusal of both federal and state authorities to clear critical financial components, leaving academics to battle severe economic hardships.
“On outstanding welfare issues, ASUU Sokoto zone decries the non-payment of the 25-35% salary award, promotion arrears, salary shortfalls, unremitted third-party deductions, and the three months’ salary withheld during the 2022 ASUU strike,” Sabo declared. “Universities cannot function effectively where lecturers are denied their legitimate entitlements for years. Nigerian academics deserve dignity, fair treatment, and prompt payment.”
Beyond financial remuneration, the union launched a fierce critique against recent educational policy shifts introduced by the administration, arguing they pose severe structural risks to the sovereignty and integrity of Nigerian tertiary institutions. ASUU raised strong objections to the proposed establishment of a foreign Coventry University campus within Nigeria and plans to phase out certain vital courses in the humanities and social sciences under the guise of labor market reforms.
“We express deep concerns over new education policies, including the reversal of the mother-tongue policy in early childhood education, and plans to scrap certain courses in the humanities,” the zonal coordinator noted, insisting that all academic disciplines remain profoundly relevant to comprehensive national growth.
Compounding the crisis are worsening regional realities, with the union raising alarms over rampant cases of institutional maladministration, unprocedural appointments, and a chilling wave of northern insecurity that leaves staff and students operating under constant fear of banditry and kidnapping.
Warning that a total campus shutdown remains a highly probable last resort, ASUU made a passionate appeal to patriotic Nigerians, parents, students, and civil society organizations to pressure the state to honor its signatures before the system collapses into another preventable industrial explosion.
NAN