ASUU Demands Release of Withheld Salaries, Urges FG to Honour 2025 Agreement
Adedokun Waliyu
3 min read
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has renewed its demand for the payment of withheld salaries and the resolution of other outstanding welfare issues affecting university lecturers.
ASUU President, Prof. Christopher Piwuna, made the call while briefing journalists at the union’s Secretariat at the University of Jos in Plateau State.
Piwuna said the Federal Government must urgently address all outstanding issues concerning the welfare of academic staff, as well as matters arising from the Federal Government of Nigeria-ASUU Agreement of December 2025.
According to him, resolving the issues is critical to restoring confidence among university lecturers and creating the conditions necessary for effective teaching, research and learning in Nigeria’s public universities.
The ASUU president also raised concerns about the country’s socio-economic situation and called for a fundamental shift in government policies ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He urged political parties and candidates to make the welfare of Nigerians, job creation, poverty reduction, education and economic development central to their programmes instead of relying on policies that provide temporary relief without addressing the structural causes of hardship.
Piwuna criticised what he described as International Monetary Fund and World Bank-dictated “poverty alleviation” policies, arguing that they should be replaced with more participatory and inclusive programmes designed around Nigeria’s peculiar 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.
He also urged the government to suspend unnecessary borrowing and explore sustainable alternative sources of financing for development projects that have a direct impact on the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians.
The ASUU president called for stronger measures to tackle corruption and financial leakages, including the recovery of stolen public resources and improved accountability in the management of public funds.
He further advocated a tax system that places a greater burden on wealthy Nigerians, arguing that the rich should contribute more towards financing development and improving the living conditions of poorer citizens.
“As an underdeveloped country yearning for rapid development, it’s the rich that must be taxed to give the poor a life worth living,” Piwuna said.
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 realities.
He said Nigeria should move away from simply replicating educational models developed for other societies and instead develop an education system that addresses the country’s peculiar challenges and development needs.
He called for greater attention to research, technical education, agriculture, innovation and skills development, stressing that these areas were essential to producing the manpower required to drive Nigeria’s development.
According to him, properly funded research and technical education would also help reduce unemployment by equipping young Nigerians with relevant skills and creating pathways into productive sectors of the economy.
The union also urged the Federal and State Governments to address the infrastructure and funding challenges confronting public universities, saying sustainable investment was required to reverse the decline in the quality of higher education.
Piwuna stressed that the welfare of academic staff must remain central to any meaningful reform of the university system, noting that lecturers cannot effectively perform their responsibilities in an environment where agreed conditions of service remain unresolved.
He said 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.
The ASUU president maintained that the challenges confronting Nigerian universities could not be separated from the wider economic difficulties facing the country.
He therefore called on governments at the federal, state and local levels to redirect their socio-economic policies and projects towards the people, whom they hold public resources in trust for.
With the 2027 elections approaching, ASUU urged Nigerians to critically assess the policies and programmes being offered by political parties and candidates, particularly their plans for education, employment, poverty reduction, production and social protection.
The union insisted that Nigeria requires policies capable of transforming its productive capacity and reducing dependence, rather than measures that merely manage the symptoms of poverty.
Piwuna said ASUU remained committed to engaging the government and other stakeholders towards finding lasting solutions to the challenges confronting Nigeria’s university system and the wider society.
