The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Sunday declared a two-week total and comprehensive warning strike across all public universities in Nigeria.
The declaration was made by the National President of ASUU, Prof. Chris Piwuna, during a press briefing held at the University of Abuja, where the union’s leadership outlined the reasons behind the industrial action and expressed frustration over what it described as the Federal Government’s persistent neglect of the education sector.
Prof. Piwuna said the union’s decision followed the expiration of a 14-day ultimatum issued on September 28, 2025, after what he called the government’s “continued failure to honour existing agreements and address the worsening condition of Nigerian universities.”
“Compatriots of the press, it goes without saying that there is nothing sufficient on ground to stop the implementation of the ASUU-NEC’s resolution to embark on a two-week warning strike at the expiry of the 14-day notice given on the 28th September 2025,” Piwuna declared.
According to him, the strike, which takes effect immediately, will involve a complete withdrawal of academic and administrative services in all federal and state universities across the country.
He explained that the union’s action was necessitated by the government’s failure to address key issues such as unpaid academic earned allowances, withheld salaries, poor funding of universities, and the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-Federal Government Agreement.
“We have been pushed to the wall,” Piwuna said. “Despite our repeated calls for dialogue and genuine commitment, the government has continued to ignore our grievances while Nigerian universities crumble under the weight of neglect.”
He lamented the poor condition of university infrastructure, the non-release of revitalisation funds, and the continued imposition of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) on university workers, which he described as “a violation of university autonomy.”
“The IPPIS has continued to undermine the spirit of the university system. Our members are owed months of salaries and arrears because of its inefficiencies,” he said.
Prof. Piwuna stressed that the union’s decision was not intended to punish students but to draw national attention to the “systematic decay” in public universities.
“We share the pain of our students and their parents. But we cannot continue to work under these suffocating conditions. The future of higher education in Nigeria is at stake, and we must act now,” he added.
The ASUU president also warned that if the Federal Government fails to address the union’s demands within the two-week window, a full-blown indefinite strike may follow.
“This warning strike is a signal,” he said. “We are ready for a long struggle if that is what it takes to save Nigerian universities from total collapse.”
ASUU has been in and out of industrial disputes with the Federal Government for over two decades, often over issues of funding, welfare, and autonomy. The latest strike comes amid growing public concern about the deteriorating quality of education and brain drain among university lecturers.
Meanwhile, students and parents have expressed mixed reactions to the development, with many urging both ASUU and the Federal Government to find a lasting solution to the recurrent crisis in the education sector.
