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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has faulted the Federal and state governments over the continued withholding of three-and-a-half months’ salaries owed university lecturers and what it described as uneven implementation of the agreement reached with the union in December 2025.
ASUU President, Prof. Christopher Piwuna, disclosed this while speaking on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, saying the union had expected the agreement to bring greater stability to the university system and improve lecturers’ welfare.
Piwuna expressed disappointment that several provisions of the agreement had either not been implemented or were being implemented inconsistently by different governments.
“It’s really painful to have a conversation on issues like this. Our expectation, when we signed an agreement in December 2025, was that we are going at this time to talk about the progress that we have made, the stability in the system and concern ourselves with issues that affect Nigerians,” he said.
According to him, the agreement covered improved salaries, funding for public universities and research support, but implementation had fallen short of expectations.
He said seven-and-a-half months’ salaries were previously withheld from lecturers, adding that the Federal Government had paid four months, leaving three-and-a-half months outstanding.
The ASUU president said the unpaid balance remained a major concern for affected lecturers and urged the government to resolve the issue.
Piwuna also disclosed that some universities were still experiencing difficulties implementing the new salary structure, while lecturers in some institutions remained uncertain about receiving their full entitlements.
“As we stand now, funding is not properly being done according to what was agreed to. Individual universities have to embark on strike before salaries are being paid. Some universities are cut off from the new salary structure,” he said.
He stressed that the implementation challenges were not limited to the Federal Government, noting that state governments also had responsibilities towards universities under their control.
According to him, while some states had commenced implementation of the December 2025 agreement, others had yet to fully comply, resulting in differences in conditions of service across public universities.
Piwuna cited Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, as one of the governors who had commenced implementation.
“Only Governor Alex Otti of the South-Eastern part has implemented it,” he said.
He said ASUU had continued to engage government officials through meetings and correspondence instead of immediately resorting to industrial action.
“We have engaged them; the Minister of Education at federal level, we engaged Senator Larry Tejuosho, the chairman of the implementation committee monitoring the Federal Government agreement. We have reminded them to do the needful,” he said.
On education funding, Piwuna identified inadequate financing as one of the major challenges confronting public universities, particularly in research, infrastructure and human-capital development.
He called for increased investment in education, arguing that adequate funding was necessary for Nigerian universities to contribute to research, innovation and national development.
The ASUU president said governments should work towards allocating up to 26 per cent of their annual budgets to education, describing investment in the sector as essential to national development.
“Every government should at least aim to supply or to fund their budget or dedicate their budget up to 26 per cent to education, and Nigeria is not an exception,” he said.
Piwuna, however, disclosed that ASUU had agreed during negotiations with the Federal Government to a 15 per cent education budget benchmark, acknowledging that achieving the higher target immediately could be difficult.
“So while negotiating with the government, we told the government to reduce the budget to 15 per cent and they agreed. Although it may be difficult, it can be done incrementally,” he said.
He said the December 2025 agreement contained provisions for funding public universities, improved salaries and the establishment of mechanisms to strengthen research.
“The agreement, when we signed it, had provision for funding for public universities. It had provisions for improved salary, and it had provision for research council, amongst others,” he said.
Piwuna maintained that stronger investment in research and education was necessary to develop Nigeria’s human capital and enable its universities to contribute to the global knowledge economy.
He said ASUU remained committed to dialogue with the Federal and state governments but urged the authorities to address the outstanding salaries, fully implement the December 2025 agreement and improve funding for public universities.
