The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed guarded optimism that the Federal Government will honour the latest agreements reached with the union, signalling a potential turning point in Nigeria’s long-running crisis in the university system.
ASUU president, Chris Piwuna, said the union expects the current administration to distinguish itself from previous governments that, according to him, repeatedly failed to uphold negotiated agreements.
Speaking via text message to PREMIUM TIMES, Piwuna disclosed that ASUU would meet with the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, early in January to finalise discussions and secure firm commitments on implementation.
“We reached an agreement with the government, and we expect this government to show a difference from previous administrations that had no fidelity to their words,” Piwuna said, noting that earlier Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and Memoranda of Action (MoA) were largely ignored.
He added that ASUU members had exercised considerable restraint throughout the prolonged negotiation process, despite repeated delays and unmet promises. According to him, both parties agreed that January 2026 would serve as the commencement date for implementing the new agreement.
“They agreed to January 2026 as the commencement date of this agreement,” Piwuna said, expressing hope that the government would not “start the new year by breaking agreements with excuses.”
He further revealed that the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education had already informed the union of a proposed follow-up meeting aimed at reinforcing the government’s commitment to the agreement.
Details of the agreement
Earlier media reports had indicated that the federal government and ASUU reached an interim agreement on Wednesday, raising hopes of ending an impasse that has lasted for more than a decade. The original agreement, first signed in 2009, has remained the central source of friction between the two sides, largely due to failed renegotiations that were supposed to occur periodically.
PREMUIM TIMES’ sources familiar with the latest deal said it includes a 40 per cent salary increase for academic staff and the establishment of a National Research Council with statutory funding of at least one per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The agreement also provides that professors will retire at the age of 70 with pensions equivalent to their annual salaries.
In addition, the government reportedly committed to enhanced university autonomy, stronger academic freedom, and improved funding for research, libraries, laboratories, equipment, and staff development across public universities.
A long and winding negotiation
The latest breakthrough follows years of stalled negotiations and repeated industrial actions by ASUU. The sixth renegotiation committee, inaugurated in October, eventually concluded the harmonisation process that led to the current agreement. The committee, officially known as the Federal Government Tertiary Institutions Expanded Negotiation Committee, was chaired by Yayale Ahmed, Pro-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University.
ASUU had earlier accused successive governments of constituting renegotiation committees without any genuine intention to sign or implement their recommendations. The first such committee, set up in 2017 and led by Wale Babalakin, collapsed after his resignation in 2020. His successor, Munzali Jibril, submitted a draft agreement in 2021 that was never implemented.
Another committee chaired by Nimi Briggs, constituted in 2022 following a prolonged ASUU strike, also produced a draft that the government failed to adopt.
In 2024, the government again reconstituted a committee under Ahmed, whose draft agreement submitted in February was similarly left unsigned, triggering another brief strike in October.
Subsequent committees, including one led by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Abel Enitan, reviewed earlier drafts before the final harmonisation committee was inaugurated in October.
For ASUU, the latest agreement represents a critical test of the government’s sincerity. While optimism remains cautious, union leaders insist that only concrete implementation, not promises, will finally restore stability to Nigeria’s troubled public university system.
