One month after FG declared strikes permanently over, ASUU raises fresh alarm

• Education Minister Tunji Alausa declared in April that ASUU strikes were permanently over.

• ASUU now says key parts of the 2025 agreement with the Federal Government remain unimplemented.

• The union warns that unresolved salary arrears and unpaid allowances are threatening the fragile peace in universities.

In April 2026, Minister of Education Tunji Alausa stood before an audience at a student venture capital awards ceremony in Lagos and made a declaration, that the era of strikes in Nigerian tertiary institutions was permanently over. 

Universities and polytechnics would remain open for all academic sessions, he declared, saying the government had resolved its longstanding disputes with the Academic Staff Union of Universities through the 2025 FG/ASUU agreement, and the road ahead was stable.

One month later, ASUU is warning that the peace is already fragile.

The Lagos Zone of ASUU held a press conference at the University of Lagos on Wednesday, where it accused both the Federal Government and the Lagos State Government of failing to implement key components of the same agreement the minister had cited as proof that the crisis was over. 

Zonal Coordinator Adesola Nassir read out a communique that painted a picture of an agreement honoured more in signing than in substance.

The union's grievances are specific. Consolidated Academic Tool Allowances, Earned Academic Allowances, and Professorial Allowances have not been mainstreamed into the salary structure as agreed. 

Arrears of the 25 to 35 percent salary award remain unpaid. Promotion arrears are outstanding. Third-party deductions, including cooperative society contributions and pension remittances, have been collected from lecturers but not remitted to the appropriate bodies. 

Salary shortfalls arising from the government's Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System implementation remain unresolved and the three-and-a-half months' salaries withheld during the 2022 industrial action have still not been returned.

"To make deductions from salaries and fail to remit the same is fraudulent and criminal, to say the least," the union declared.

The Lagos Zone covers seven institutions including the University of Lagos, Lagos State University, Olabisi Onabanjo University, and the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. ASUU said the inconsistent implementation across these institutions had deepened tension and was accelerating brain drain, with experienced academics leaving Nigerian universities for better conditions abroad.

The union stopped short of issuing a strike notice but left little ambiguity about where things were headed. "Unless immediate steps are taken, the fragile peace in the universities can no longer be guaranteed," it warned.

The minister's declaration in April was meant to draw a line under decades of recurring strikes that have cost Nigerian students hundreds of academic days. ASUU's warning suggests that line may have been drawn prematurely.

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