The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday warned of a full-blown strike due to what it described as the discouraging manner by which the federal government has been handling the industrial dispute declared by the union.

The Coordinator, Ibadan Zone of the Union, Prof. Biodun Olaniran, while addressing journalists at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, said government functionaries were feeding the public with false news while frustrating efforts to speedily conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement.

He said the real demand “of our Union is the re-negotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement being currently handled by the Alhaji Yayale Ahmed-led Committee that will produce a new salary structure to replace the Consolidated University Salary Scale (CONUASS) given the galloping inflation in the country since then.”

The Academic Staff Union Ibadan Zone comprises University of Ibadan, Ibadan; University of Ilorin, Ilorin; Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso; Osun State University, Osogbo; Kwara State University, Malete and Emmanuel Alayande University of Education, Oyo.

Olaniran who was flanked by other chairmen from the zone, said ASUU had expected that a government focused on national development, technological innovation and advancement would spare no effort to work within the deadline by giving a marching order to its agents; lamenting that the federal government had been dealing with the Union bereft of the seriousness the issues deserve.

“Regrettably, just about eight days to the expiration of the one-month window, nothing significant has been done other than the usual misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda,” he said.

While acknowledging the release of part of the four-year promotion arrears, third-party deductions such as union dues, cooperative and pension deductions being flaunted by government, he however maintained that these should not be misconstrued by Nigerians as having resolved the demands of ASUU.

Olaniran said, “The just concluded National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of ASUU held at Taraba State University, Jalingo on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th November 2025 clinically X-rayed the state of our engagements with the federal government and Visitors to state universities. The current state of insecurity and excruciating economic situation in the country and its negative impacts on the welfare of the members of our ASUU calls for great concern by all stakeholders in the educational sector

“The role being played by government functionaries in the process of renegotiating the Agreement with the Union is negatively worrisome, to say the least. Unless the federal government holds the bull by the horns, by offering a competitive salary structure within the remaining timeline, our students in the public universities across the nation may have their academic calendars disrupted, once again. ASUU, Ibadan Zone, therefore identifies the urgent need to prevail on governments to avert this looming crisis.

“The counter offers made by government through the Alhaji Yayale Ahmed-led Committee have been rejected firmly by our Union because it is inappropriate and unacceptable to make such ridiculous offers to academics who have been taking the same salaries for 16 years. This falls below what many West African countries pay their academics, while Nigerian politicians are the highest paid political office holders in Africa, if not globally. What is lacking is the political will and not the resources to fund qualitative education in Nigeria.”

He stated that the three and half months’ salaries of members of the union in federal universities, held on account of the federal government that provoked the strike of our Union in 2022, are still being withheld by government.

“Many state universities are yet to pay the withheld salaries; promotion arrears, and Earned Academic Allowances (EAA). For the avoidance of doubt, the Osun State University is yet to release the withheld salaries of the members of the Union from 2018 and 2020 and the arrears of the reduced 2015-2019 EAA. The story is the same at LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, where EAA and promotion arrears are still outstanding, KWASU has not benefited from EAA and, like some other state varsities in the country.

“Our Union strongly frowns at this indifferent, anti-progress, anti-labour, and inhumane act. We, therefore, demand the unconditional payment of all withheld salaries, promotion arrears, and outstanding EAA to the academic members of staff of universities who are members of ASUU,” Olaniran added.