ASUU Raises Alarm Over FG’s Alleged Breach of 2025 Agreement, Warns Against Looming Varsities’ Shutdown

By Gabriel Chy Alonta

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Owerri Zone, on Tuesday raised serious concerns over what it described as the Federal Government’s failure to faithfully implement the December 2025 agreement reached with the union, warning that continued neglect of the pact and unresolved welfare issues could trigger avoidable industrial unrest across public universities.

Addressing journalists at the press conference held at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUU Owerri Zone, Comrade Dennis Aribodor, said the union had maintained a “studied silence” since the agreement was publicly unveiled in January 2026, but was compelled to speak out following what it called a disturbing pattern of selective implementation and official inertia.

The zone, which comprises Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University; Federal University of Technology, Owerri; Imo State University; and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, lamented that the goodwill generated by the signing of the agreement is gradually fading due to the Federal Government’s refusal to inaugurate the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC), a critical mechanism designed to ensure coordinated execution of the pact.

According to Aribodor, the non-inauguration of the committee has created room for distortions, inconsistencies and arbitrary interpretations by university administrators and state governments.

“The implementation problem is the real issue. Government entered into an agreement but has failed to put in place the structure required to drive and monitor compliance. This has encouraged a pick-and-choose approach by some university administrators, especially in the payment of academic allowances,” he said.

The union condemned what it described as partial implementation of key salary components, including the Consolidated Academic Tool Allowances (CATA), Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), and Professorial Allowances (PA), insisting that all negotiated entitlements ought to have been mainstreamed into monthly salary structures.

ASUU further expressed disappointment that no state university in the South-East has implemented the salary component of the agreement, despite active participation of representatives of governing councils during negotiations.

On the issue of staff welfare, the union painted a grim picture of lecturers still grappling with unresolved arrears, withheld salaries, unpaid promotion benefits, delayed remittances of third-party deductions, pension complications and the controversial withholding of three-and-half months salaries linked to the 2022 industrial action.

Aribodor described the continued withholding of salaries as unjust and dehumanising, stressing that lecturers had already made sacrifices to recover lost academic time and ensure students graduated as scheduled.

“Education is a public good. Industrial action is never our preferred option because it disrupts academic programmes, affects students and undermines the economy. But ASUU cannot continue to watch government dishonour agreements while lecturers suffer in silence,” he warned.

The press conference also took a critical look at the Federal Government’s recently proposed National Research and Innovation Development Fund (NRIDF), which the union said deviates from the National Research Council framework captured in the 2025 agreement.

ASUU questioned the Minister of Education’s announcement of a proposed $500 million research fund without reference to the agreed funding benchmark of at least one per cent equivalent of Nigeria’s GDP, describing the move as a potential derailment of a carefully negotiated research development agenda.

The union also frowned at the growing administrative impunity within some universities, citing irregular appointments, financial opacity, abuse of governance structures, and the introduction of questionable academic designations such as “Professor of Practice” and “Diaspora Professors” without due legislative or senate approvals.

Particularly, ASUU Owerri Zone drew attention to unresolved issues in state-owned universities within the zone. At Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, the union decried the continued withholding of salaries related to the 2020 and 2022 strike actions, alongside non-implementation of wage adjustments and the 2025 agreement.

At Imo State University, concerns were raised over delayed promotions, non-payment of arrears dating back to 2016, lack of recruitment since 2015, and the continued operation of the university under the state Treasury Single Account, which the union said undermines institutional autonomy.

Calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, South-East governors, traditional rulers, parents, students, civil society groups and the media to intervene, ASUU urged all stakeholders to prevail on government at all levels to honour its commitments.

The union maintained that its intervention through the press conference was intended to avert industrial action, not announce one, but warned that failure to act decisively could further strain the fragile peace currently existing on Nigerian campuses.

“Our silence should not be mistaken for weakness. We are raising the alarm now so that reason can prevail before avoidable disruptions occur,” Aribodor concluded.