The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called for a comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s education system while expressing renewed frustration over unpaid salaries and other outstanding entitlements owed to university lecturers.
The union’s National President, Prof. Chris Piwuna, made the demands on Friday, August 14, during a press conference in Jos, Plateau State.
Piwuna was accompanied by the union’s Bauchi Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Timothy Namo; University of Jos ASUU branch chairman, Prof. Jurbe Molwus; Plateau State University branch chairman, Dr Vincent Choji; the union’s Legal Committee chairman and other officials.
He presented ASUU’s position paper titled “Nigerian Universities and Nigeria Today: Our Worries, Our Propositions.”
One of the major issues raised was the outstanding balance of salaries withheld from lecturers following ASUU’s 2022 nationwide strike.
Piwuna said the Federal Government appeared unwilling to pay the remaining three-and-a-half months owed to affected lecturers.
“In words and deeds, the Federal Government appears to have turned its back on paying the outstanding balance of lecturers’ three-and-half months arising from the 2022 nationwide strike action of ASUU.”
He recalled that the union had welcomed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s initial response to the salary dispute after the administration paid four of the seven-and-a-half months withheld by the previous government.
He said ASUU “had applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s initial pro-labour disposition for paying the four out of the seven-and-half months’ salaries withheld by the last administration.”
However, Piwuna said the failure to settle the outstanding balance had created resentment among lecturers.
“The non-payment of the balance has left a strong bitter taste in the mouths of ASUU members.”
He said the union had repeatedly explained that lecturers made significant sacrifices during the strike and that paying the outstanding salaries would help strengthen industrial harmony in universities.
“The repeated union’s arguments that its members made extraordinary sacrifice to cover the last ground during the provoked-strike action and that paying the withheld salaries would further cement industrial harmony on the university campuses appear to have fallen on deaf ears. This is a sad development.”
Piwuna said ASUU’s National Executive Council had rejected the government’s position and would pursue lawful measures to press for payment.
The union also raised concerns about delays in the payment of 25/35 per cent wage awards and promotion arrears owed to its members.
Piwuna expressed concern over “continuous delay in the payment of 25/35% wage award and promotion arrears of our members,” and called on “the Federal and affected State Government to urgently pay these entitlements in order to encourage our members and guarantee industrial harmony in our Universities.”
Piwuna also criticised what he described as the poor implementation of the December 2025 agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU.
He said the agreement had initially raised hopes that tensions in Nigerian universities would ease and that the university system would enter a period of greater stability.
“The signing of the December 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement was seen by many as a significant move to arrest restiveness among academic staff of Federal and State universities and chart a new path of growth and stability for the Nigerian University System (NUS).”
But he said implementation had been inconsistent.
“the haphazard implementations of the Agreement by governments at the two levels leave much to be desired; making the resurgence of campus unrest inevitable.”
The union president said several federal universities were struggling to meet the financial obligations contained in the agreement because of funding difficulties.
He said, “Vice-Chancellors of other federally-owned universities are struggling to partially implement the financial component of the Agreement or raise their empty hands in helplessness due to non-funding of their monthly salary bills by the federal government.”
Piwuna also criticised state governments, saying “only about 10% or less among the governors have openly endorsed the new salary package for academics; several others are playing the ostrich.”
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Against this backdrop, he announced that ASUU’s NEC had authorised some affected universities to embark on varying forms of industrial action.
“NEC resolved to grant some affected state and federal universities permission to embark on varying degrees of industrial action to press home their demands.”
The institutions listed include Plateau State University, Bokkos; Nasarawa State University, Keffi; Gombe State University; Abia State University; and Kaduna State University.
Beyond lecturers’ welfare, the union called for a fundamental rethink of Nigeria’s education policies to ensure they reflect the country’s specific circumstances and development needs.
“ASUU calls for a comprehensive review of Nigeria’s education system to reflect the country’s peculiar socio-economic, cultural, technological and developmental realities rather than merely replicating models developed for other societies,” Piwuna said.
He said the country needed to devote greater attention to research, technical education, agriculture, innovation and skills development.
“greater attention must be given to research, technical education, agriculture, innovation and the development of skills relevant to Nigeria’s needs.”
The union also criticised the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) policy distinguishing between “tenable and non-tenable universities”, describing the arrangement as “discriminatory.”
On national security, ASUU expressed concern over rising insecurity as the country moves towards the 2027 general elections.
“The political class are the most significant and dangerous threat to Nigeria’s security. They are the ‘tribe’ that threaten us all.”
Piwuna said resolving the outstanding welfare issues affecting academic staff remained essential to restoring stability across Nigeria’s public universities.
“To derive maximum benefits from Nigeria’s public universities, however, the Federal and State governments must take urgent steps to address all outstanding issues of academic staff welfare as well as all matters arising from the FGN-ASUU Agreement of December 2025.”