The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has cautioned that without tangible efforts to resolve lingering issues and meet its demands, 2025 could bring prolonged conflicts between the union and the Federal Government.
Criticizing the government’s efforts in 2024 as superficial, ASUU claimed that no significant progress was made in improving the university education system. Instead, the government continued to neglect public universities and failed to address unresolved matters from previous years.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Chairman of ASUU’s Ibadan chapter, Prof. Ayo Akinwole, emphasized that the uninterrupted academic calendar in 2024 was due to the union’s sacrifices, not the government’s resolution of outstanding issues.
ASUU condemned the Federal Government’s reversal of the 18-year age requirement for university admission and urged President Bola Tinubu’s administration to prioritize finalizing and signing the Nimi Briggs-led renegotiated agreement instead of initiating fresh negotiations. Prof. Akinwole accused the government of ignoring critical issues, including:
- Lack of funding for public university revitalization per the FGN-ASUU MoUs of 2012, 2013, and MoA of 2017.
- Withholding three and a half months of salaries.
- Failure to release third-party deductions such as loan repayments, retirement savings, and cooperative contributions.
- Non-payment of arrears for Earned Academic Allowances (EAA).
- Rising authoritarianism in universities.
- Challenges stemming from the proliferation of public universities.
- Non-implementation of Visitation Panel reports.
- Refusal to replace IPPIS with UTAS.
- Delay in renegotiating the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement.
The union reiterated its call for immediate and concrete action to address these longstanding issues.
“These pending issues were yet to be satisfactorily resolved in 2024 and will, no doubt, define the trajectories of the relationships between our Union and the Federal Government in 2025. Having reviewed the state of education in Nigeria in 2024, it is time to set an agenda for 2025.
“Fellow Nigerians, given the usual adamant posture of the Federal Government to satisfactorily address the pending issues concerning the education sector in general and the university system in particular, we expect that the year 2025 may, if care is not taken, be a year of another challenge and struggle.
“In the absence of visible and concrete efforts at addressing the pending issues and meeting our expectations, there is likely to be a long-drawn confrontation between our Union and the Federal Government, which will probably lead to another round of untold avoidable crisis in the university system in Nigeria.
“Given the important role of education in national development, it is expected that the Government should show a sincere commitment to reversing the downward trend in basic education by engaging in a total overhaul of the sector through the provision of basic facilities, such as good classrooms, desks, and chairs which will address the issues of over-crowding and dilapidation.
“The remuneration of the teachers should be reviewed to attract and recruit qualified teachers. Critical and concerted efforts should be deployed to tackle the high rate of out-of-school children in Nigeria, considering that education is the fundamental right of every Nigerian child.
“We also expect that the withheld three and a half months’ salaries and third-party deductions owed our members should be paid forthwith. We also expect that the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) should be released, just as we expect that the funding for the revitalisation of the universities should be released by the FGN-ASUU MoU of 2012, 2013, and the MoA of 2017.
“The welfare of workers in the education sector and Nigerian workers is paramount, considering the state of the national economy and high cost of living, which has deepened the erosion of the conditions of service of our members.
“We, therefore, expect that the Nimi Briggs-led renegotiated draft agreement should be quickly reviewed in line with current economic indices and signed and that the university lecturers’ salaries should be restored to the African average which was the spirit of the 2009 Agreement, leading to the pegging of the professorial salaries at $3,000, which, in 2025, has amounted to paltry $200 due to the deterioration of the Nigerian Naira against the US dollar.
“It is also our expectation that the attack on TETFund should cease and the idea of commodifying university education in Nigeria should be dropped. Instead of borrowing bad examples from Britain and other capitalist countries, we should, as a developing country, borrow from countries like Germany, where education at all levels is free and properly funded.
“The welfare of workers in the education sector and Nigerian workers is paramount, considering the state of the national economy and high cost of living, which has deepened the erosion of the conditions of service of our members.
“We, therefore, expect that the Nimi Briggs-led renegotiated draft agreement should be quickly reviewed in line with current economic indices and signed and that the university lecturers’ salaries should be restored to the African average which was the spirit of the 2009 Agreement, leading to the pegging of the professorial salaries at $3,000, which, in 2025, has amounted to paltry $200 due to the deterioration of the Nigerian Naira against the US dollar.
“It is also our expectation that the attack on TETFund should cease and the idea of commodifying university education in Nigeria should be dropped. Instead of borrowing bad examples from Britain and other capitalist countries, we should, as a developing country, borrow from countries like Germany, where education at all levels is free and properly funded.
“Part of our expectations is that the long-standing challenges associated with the payment mode should be laid to rest in 2025 by the implementation of UTAS.
“Government as a matter of urgency should reverse the downward trend of public universities by deliberately restoring true hope for the children of the people who do not have any option of private university or overseas studies.
“Comrades, in this new year, let us summon more courage to act against the threat to knowledge and human dignity. Consequently, we advise our members to continue to remain vigilant and continue their support to the leadership of the Union at all levels. Let’s brace up for the crisis that may arise should our expectations not be satisfactorily met in 2025. For a people United Can Never Be Defeated,” the statement read.
………
Note : To submit Press Releases, Statements, and Advert Inquiries for publication on Waffi blog (website) or Television 📺, please use the following contact details: You can send an email to info@waffitv.com or reach us via Whatsapp at 07068286500
