ASUU BEGINS TWO-WEEK WARNING STRIKE

The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared a two-week warning strike beginning from Monday, 13th October, 2025, to further press for the resolution of their long-standing demands by the Federal Government.

The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared a two-week warning strike beginning from Monday, 13th October, 2025, to further press for the resolution of their long-standing demands by the Federal Government.

President of ASUU, Professor Chris Piwuna, who announced this on Sunday at a news conference in Abuja, ordered members of ASUU in all its branches to withdraw their services with effect from midnight (12.01 a.m.) on Monday.

This followed the expiration of the two-week ultimatum the Union gave the Federal Government to meet their lingering demands.

He noted that the meeting with the government side on Friday was nothing to write home about, noting that ASUU would soon present its response to the government offer.

According to him, what the government offered ASUU was nothing to stop the proposed strike action.

He said: “It goes without saying that there is nothing sufficient on ground to stop the implementation of ASUU-NEC’s resolution to embark on a two-week warning strike at the expiry of the 14 days notice given on 28th September, 2025.

“Consequently, all branches of ASUU are hereby directed to withdraw their services with effect from midnight (12.01a.m.) on Monday, 13th October, 2025.

The warning strike shall be total and comprehensive as agreed at the last NEC meeting,” Piwuna stated.

Some of the demands of ASUU include the re-negotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, sustainable funding and revitalisation of universities, an end to the victimisation of ASUU members at Lagos State University (LASU), Kogi State University (now Prince Abubakar Audu University), and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO),  among others.

The two-week warning strike was declared despite an appeal by the Federal Government for the Union to shelve the planned strike action over unmet demands, the Minister of Education, Dr Olatunji Alausa, said have lingered for over 15 years.

Speaking on Wednesday last week, before the meeting of the high-level committee on FGN/ASUU 2025 proposed agreement in Abuja, Alausa assured ASUU members that the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was ready to resolve all the lingering issues in a comprehensive and holistic manner.

Alausa said Tinubu had directed that the proposed strike be averted, affirming the commitment and political will of the President to resolve all the contending issues that would be mutually acceptable and respectful to all the staff unions.

He said there was no basis for ASUU or any other staff unions in territory institutions to embark on industrial action, stressing that the directive of the President is clear, “strike must be averted for Nigerian children to be in school”.

Recall that ASUU had two weeks issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to meet its demands or face industrial action.

The decision was reached at the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held on September 28 at the University of Abuja.

The Minister has noted that the meeting was a technical working group to finalise components of the condition of service for university workers and a counteroffer to ASUU.

He disclosed that by Thursday last week, the Yayale Ahmed-led Federal Government Tertiary Institutions Expanded Negotiating Committee would have met with the leadership of ASUU to present the government’s offer to them.

The Minister noted that the government had commenced the implementation of the demands of the lecturers and other staff unions, saying the current administration of President Tinubu released N50 billion Earned Academic Allowance some months ago.

He added that N150 billion was allocated in the 2025 budget as revitalisation fund for tertiary institutions while the issues of promotion arrears would be captured in 2026 budget.