The Federal Government is expected to meet with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Abuja this week in a decisive move to resolve the lingering dispute over the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement.
At the high-level meeting, government officials are expected to present a counteroffer to the union in a bid to translate more than a decade of stalled negotiations into concrete and actionable commitments.
Sources close to the development said the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, will lead the federal delegation, which will include the Minister of Labour, representatives of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), and the Solicitor-General.
The talks, expected to produce a clear timeline for the signing and phased implementation of the renegotiated agreement, come amid growing warnings from ASUU chapters nationwide that their patience is wearing thin.
ASUU concluded its latest round of renegotiations in December 2024 and submitted its report to the government in February 2025. However, union leaders say the continued delay in implementation risks plunging the university system into another prolonged shutdown.
Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Abuja Zone, Prof. Al-Amin Abdullahi, said during a media briefing in Abuja that the union had fulfilled its part of the agreement and now expects the government to act.
“The union had kept its part of the bargain and expected the government to demonstrate seriousness by adopting the report without delay,” he said.
The 2009 agreement, signed under the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, remains the foundation of ASUU’s demands. It outlines key reforms for Nigeria’s public universities, including sustained revitalisation funding, institutional autonomy, enhanced remuneration and working conditions for academic staff, and a monitoring framework for implementation.
Dr. Alausa’s involvement in the process has been widely welcomed across campuses as a sign of renewed commitment by the government to bridge the gap between promises and delivery.
Meanwhile, ASUU has reiterated its call for urgent action, saying it has given the government ample time to meet its obligations.
ASUU President, Prof. Christopher Piwuna, speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief yesterday, said lecturers in public universities had made significant sacrifices and deserved their entitlements.
“We’ve been on this for such a long time, and we have, in our view, always demonstrated patience, understanding, and have adopted dialogue to try to address these issues,” he said.
“Since democracy started in 1999 to now, people are quick to say that ASUU has been on strike and schools have been closed, and you wonder what the government thinks about these actions.”
He added that although the union had engaged the administration of President Bola Tinubu, the response from the government had been “extremely slow.”
