Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) staged a nationwide protest on Tuesday to highlight what they described as the Federal Government’s persistent neglect of their long-standing demands.
At the University of Jos, lecturers marched before addressing journalists, where they rejected outright the newly introduced Tertiary Institution Staff Support Fund loan scheme. Branch chairperson, Joseph Molwus, dismissed the initiative as a “poison chalice,” insisting it would deepen lecturers’ financial woes rather than solve them. He argued that what lecturers needed was the payment of their withheld entitlements, not loans to meet basic needs.
Similar protests took place at the University of Lagos, where lecturers carried placards demanding payment of arrears, improved welfare, and a renegotiation of the 2009 FG–ASUU agreement.
In Edo State, ASUU members at the University of Benin warned the government to honour the 2009 agreement or risk another strike. The union in Zamfara State, led by Abdulrahman Adamu of the Federal University Gusau, condemned the government’s neglect of universities and revealed that lecturers are still owed three and a half months’ salaries from the 2020 strike, alongside unpaid promotion and wage award arrears.
At the Federal University Dutse in Jigawa State, lecturers joined the protest, accusing the government of ignoring their plight while failing to remit outstanding third-party deductions and earned academic allowances.
ASUU further criticised the government for abandoning the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, warning that industrial peace in universities was under serious threat. The union reminded President Bola Tinubu of his 2022 campaign pledge to prevent university strikes, urging him to personally intervene to avert another shutdown.
ASUU stressed its commitment to dialogue but cautioned that patience was wearing thin, warning that unless urgent steps were taken, universities risked sliding back into prolonged crisis.