The Academic Staff Union of Universities has renewed its demand for the payment of withheld salaries and the implementation of outstanding provisions of its December 2025 agreement with the Federal Government.
ASUU President, Prof. Christopher Piwuna, made the demand on Friday while briefing journalists at the union’s secretariat at the University of Jos in Plateau State.
Piwuna said the Federal Government must urgently resolve outstanding issues affecting academic staff, particularly those arising from the December 2025 Federal Government-ASUU Agreement.
He said addressing the grievances would help restore confidence among university lecturers and create a more stable environment for teaching, research and learning across Nigeria’s public universities.
“The implementation of outstanding aspects of the December 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement would go a long way towards restoring industrial harmony and enabling university lecturers to focus on teaching, research and community service,” Piwuna said.
The ASUU president also linked the challenges facing university lecturers to the wider socio-economic difficulties confronting the country, calling for significant changes in government policies ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He urged political parties and candidates to make job creation, poverty reduction, education and economic development central to their programmes rather than rely on measures that provide temporary relief without addressing the underlying causes of hardship.
Piwuna criticised what he described as IMF and World Bank-dictated “poverty alleviation” policies, arguing that Nigeria needed more participatory programmes designed around its own economic realities.
He called on Federal and state governments to prioritise agricultural and industrial production, social protection and other productive sectors capable of creating jobs and reducing dependency.
The ASUU president also urged the government to limit unnecessary borrowing and develop sustainable alternative sources of financing for projects that directly improve Nigerians’ livelihoods.
He called for stronger measures against corruption and financial leakages, including the recovery of stolen public funds and greater accountability in the management of government resources.
Piwuna further advocated a tax system that places a greater burden on wealthy Nigerians, arguing that those with greater financial capacity should contribute more to national development.
“As an underdeveloped country yearning for rapid development, it’s the rich that must be taxed to give the poor a life worth living,” he said.
ASUU Calls for Education Reform
On education, Piwuna called for a comprehensive review of Nigeria’s education system to make it more responsive to the country’s socio-economic, cultural, technological and developmental needs.
He said Nigeria should develop an education model suited to its own challenges rather than simply replicate systems designed for other societies.
He called for greater investment in research, technical education, agriculture, innovation and skills development, saying these areas were critical to producing the manpower needed to drive economic development.
According to him, properly funded research and technical education could also help reduce unemployment by equipping young Nigerians with relevant skills and creating pathways into productive sectors.
The union also urged the Federal and state governments to address infrastructure and funding challenges in public universities, stressing that sustainable investment was necessary to reverse the decline in higher education.
Piwuna maintained that academic staff welfare must remain central to university reform, arguing that lecturers cannot effectively perform their responsibilities when agreed conditions of service remain unresolved.
He said the difficulties confronting universities were inseparable from the broader economic challenges facing Nigeria and urged governments at all levels to redirect policies and development projects towards improving citizens’ welfare.
With the 2027 elections approaching, ASUU urged Nigerians to scrutinise the policies and programmes of political parties and candidates, particularly their plans for education, employment, poverty reduction, production and social protection.
The union said Nigeria needed policies capable of expanding productive capacity and reducing economic dependence rather than measures that merely manage the symptoms of poverty.
Piwuna said ASUU remained committed to engaging the government and other stakeholders to find lasting solutions to challenges facing the university system and the wider society.
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