The Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU has announced plans to begin an indefinite nationwide strike on Friday November 21, following claims that the federal government has failed to honour several longstanding agreements.
The union said the decision became necessary after repeated efforts to resolve key issues affecting public universities yielded no meaningful results.
ASUU explained that the one month window it earlier gave the government to address its demands has expired without any progress, creating fresh tension across the university system. According to the union, the planned shutdown of all public universities was disclosed in a brief statement released on its official X account on Tuesday.
In the statement, ASUU warned that the closure would take effect immediately unless the government urgently tackles issues such as fair remuneration for lecturers and improved working conditions. The union stressed that these concerns must be addressed to halt the growing exodus of academic professionals from Nigerian universities in search of better opportunities abroad.
The statement further quoted the union as saying that all universities nationwide would be shut till further notice from Friday. ASUU noted that although it had suspended a warning strike earlier in the year to allow room for negotiations, the government’s selective implementation of agreed terms has forced it to reconsider its options.
ASUU also rejected the federal government’s recent proposal of a 35 percent salary increase, describing it as inadequate and insufficient to meet the current realities facing university lecturers. The union insisted that a more comprehensive and sustainable approach is needed to improve the conditions in public universities.
It will be recalled that ASUU had embarked on a two week warning strike in October, which was later suspended to continue renegotiations of the 2009 FGN ASUU Agreement and other unresolved matters affecting the sector. The union now maintains that an indefinite strike remains the only option if the government continues to ignore its demands.
