The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ASUU

  • Economic reforms, ASUU and national development (1)

    Economic reforms, ASUU and national development (1)

    On the surface, it may appear that there is a negligible discernible link between the ongoing far-reaching economic reforms of the President Bola Tinubu administration, the newly signed agreement between the administration and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the fundamental challenge of achieving enduring, autochthonous national development in Nigeria. Not surprisingly, dominant sections of the traditional and social media have treated the newfound amity between the Federal Government and ASUU as being of only tangential and ephemeral significance. With the distorting influence of unbridled partisanship on the part of key sections of the media, it is so easy to forget or downplay the deleterious impact of frequent and protracted strikes by federal and state public universities over the last one and a half decades on education, the economy and the country’s development in general.

    It is no surprise that the academics have commended the determination, sincerity of purpose and tenacity of the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, in spearheading the breakthrough recorded by the Tinubu administration in resolving the deadlock between ASUU and successive preceding administrations on the implementation of the stillborn 2009 agreement. Highlights of the new agreement reached on December 24, 2025, and which took effect on January 1, 2026, include a 40% upward review of salaries for academics; a new Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA) of N1.74 million and N840,000 million annually for full Professors and Readers respectively; enhanced pension benefits that allow professors to earn a pension equivalent to their annual salary on retirement at the age of 70 and the enhancement of research funding through the provision of at least 1% of Nigeria’s GDP for the National Research Council (NRC).

    Read Also: FULL LIST: Top 10 states with highest FAAC allocation in 2025

    Of course, the most critical challenge is for the government to commence and sustain the implementation of all aspects of this agreement to boost the morale of the country’s academics and unleash their hitherto trapped potentials to contribute exponentially to the attainment of national transformation goals. But there is cause for optimism. As the BusinessDay newspaper put it in a report, “The agreement marks the first time a sitting Nigerian President directly took ownership of the prolonged dispute and prioritised its resolution. Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, said the agreement is intended to restore trust, guarantee uninterrupted academic calendars, and end the cycle of strikes in public universities. ASUU said the agreement is the outcome of a renegotiation process that began in 2017 and passed through multiple failed committees before the current administration inaugurated the Yayale Ahmed-led renegotiation committee in December 2024.

    Structural reforms undertaken by successive governments, civilian and military, in post-colonial Nigeria have addressed the country’s economic crisis, often at a superficial level, without confronting the more daunting problem of transcending the conundrum of underdevelopment. It is impossible to achieve the latter without taking maximal advantage of the knowledge, skills, creativity and cerebral energy of the country’s intellectuals. And the latter will remain a mirage with a depressed, demotivated, largely neglected and demoralised intellectual class. This is why the new agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU must be built upon to usher in a new era of mobilising Nigeria’s intellectual resources to achieve national developmental goals.

    Over the last two and a half years, the Tinubu administration’s reforms, external and internal assessors agree, have gone a long way to address the severe, multidimensional economic crises it inherited as a result of years of structural distortions, misplaced priorities and indulgent policies that purportedly subsidised the disadvantaged but facilitated the criminal enrichment of a parasitic minority. Examples were the fuel subsidy and parallel exchange rate markets meant to boost the value of the Naira but provided avenues for humongous self-enrichment through arbitrage for the well-connected. The abolition of these policies by the Tinubu administration, measures acknowledged as imperative by its predecessors but incessantly pushed forward, led to immediate hardships through inflationary spirals and attendant spike in living costs.

    But the bitter pills are evidently having the desired recuperative effects on the ailing economy. It is apposite to quote the latest edition of The Economist magazine at some length here. Stating that the administration’s painful reforms are beginning to show results, the magazine notes that “It is difficult to overstate the mess Mr Tinubu inherited. When he took office in 2023, the country’s Central Bank had $7 billion (equivalent to 1.4% of GDP at the time) in obligations it could not meet, prompting international investors to flee en masse. The bank’s credibility had been dented by a recklessly loose monetary policy, its mismanagement of dwindling foreign -exchange reserves and efforts to maintain an unsustainable tiered exchange -rate system. In 2022 alone, the cash-strapped government spent some $10 billion, equivalent to 2.2% of GDP, on a ruinous fuel subsidy”.

    After reiterating the painful remedial measures undertaken by the Tinubu administration to reform and restructure the economy, The Economist observes that “Nearly three years on, Nigeria’s 230 million people, especially the poor and the middle class, are still reeling from increases in fuel and food prices. Poverty has risen. But it looks as though Mr Tinubu’s bitter medicine is helping. The annual inflation rate, which hit a nearly 30-year high of of 35.8% in December 2025, fell to 15.2% in December 2025. Growth is returning. The IMF expects the economy to expand by 4.4% in 2026. Following two steep devaluations in 2023, the Naira has stabilised. The Central Bank’s foreign -exchange reserves have risen to $46 billion, their highest level in seven years. Improvements in macroeconomic stability are restoring investor confidence”.

    The challenge before the Tinubu administration is to push through these reforms till they become sustainable and irreversible, but, more importantly, to ensure that impressive statistical indices are translated into concrete improved welfare and living standards for the vast majority of Nigerians. Even if these goals are achieved, however, the administration would have addressed the problem of the economic crisis and must still lay the foundation for transcending the protracted crisis of underdevelopment. And this is where the intellectuals and the unique labour union that ASUU has become are indispensable.

    In the final analysis, no country or people can develop another political entity. All meaningful development is ultimately self-development. In its Nigeria First policy, which emphasises local raw materials, expertise and technology in production processes, Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda realises this. And so it is with its efforts to break the country’s food dependency and boost local agricultural productivity, even though continuing unacceptable levels of insecurity remain a major obstacle in critical food production zones. However,  the administration must fundamentally redefine, refocus and restructure the country’s theory and practice of development.

    Relying on external expertise, inputs and technology for the installation of major artefacts of development and modernity, such as railway tracks and trains, express roads and coastal highways, ultramodern structures, model stadia, and petroleum refineries are inevitable in the short run but do not constitute development on a long-term, sustainable basis. As one of the country’s eminent political economists, Professor Okwudiba Nnoli, puts it, “What is needed is a concept of development which is neither viewed as catching up with the advanced countries nor fixated on the procurement of artefacts. Under certain conditions, artefacts emanate from the development process and reflect it. This is so only when they are the end products of the efforts of the population to apply their creative energy to the transformation of the local, physical, biological and socio-cultural environments. This is the case in the advanced countries. They cease to mirror development when they are provided by foreigners; the local population merely acquires the products of other people’s development.”

    Over four decades ago, ASUU, in its landmark publication, ‘The Nigerian Economic Crisis: Causes and Solutions,’ made the same point with regard to the country’s industrialisation process. In its words, “By industrialization of the country, we mean the process of developing the capacity of that country to master and locate within its borders, the whole industrial production process: production of raw materials; production of intermediate products for other industries; fabrication of machines and tools required for the manufacture of desired products and of other machines; skills to operate, maintain and reconstruct machines and tools; skills to manage factories and to organize the production process”.

    • To be continued

  • Breaking the cycle of strikes in varsities

    Breaking the cycle of strikes in varsities

    For decades, Nigeria’s public universities have been trapped in a weary cycle of strikes, broken agreements, and institutional paralysis. That a fragile calm now prevails—and that a doctor, not a career education bureaucrat, helped broker it—raises a compelling question: has one of Nigeria’s most stubborn national jinxes finally been broken?

    In the lexicon of Nigeria’s university education system, few terms recur with such weary frequency as deadlock, stalemate and impasse. They hover like permanent storm clouds over labour relations, policy reform and institutional renewal, shaping expectations before negotiations even begin. Nowhere has this sense of paralysis been more deeply entrenched than in the bruising, distrust-laden relationship between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    For decades, their encounters obeyed a bleakly familiar script: promises were made, agreements ceremonially signed, expectations raised—and then, inevitably, collapsed. Strikes would follow. Campuses would empty. Academic calendars would fracture beyond repair. Students—millions of them—were left stranded in a limbo that stole time, ambition, and confidence. Over the years, the conflict acquired a near-mythical quality. It was spoken of as cursed, as though Nigeria’s higher education system laboured under a stubborn jinx—impervious to reason, dialogue, or even the most earnest gestures of goodwill. The very idea of lasting peace between government and ASUU came to be treated as naïve, if not delusional.

    It is against this troubled backdrop that the emergence of Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, a nephrologist by training, as Minister of Education assumes significance far beyond the particulars of biography. Drafted from the Ministry of Health to succeed Prof Tahir Mamman, a respected legal scholar, Alausa’s appointment signalled a conscious departure from familiar patterns rather than a routine change of guard. It was, in every sense, a deliberate rupture.

    Mamman’s tenure, though underpinned by intellectual gravitas and a genuine commitment to reform, came to be defined by procedural caution and, in the eyes of critics, a debilitating inertia. His administration struggled to escape the gravitational pull of Nigeria’s chronic university crises. Negotiations with the ASUU dragged on inconclusively, yielding agreements that offered only temporary relief. By contrast, Alausa arrived with an ethos forged far from faculty boardrooms and labour communiqués. His professional formation lay in the unforgiving world of medicine, where indecision can be fatal and systems failures are traced not to rhetoric but to root causes.

    As a nephrologist, he was trained to manage chronic, complex conditions—ailments that do not yield to superficial treatment but demand sustained, methodical intervention. In that sense, Nigeria’s education sector was a familiar patient: long-suffering, poorly managed, and repeatedly patched rather than healed. Where others saw an intractable political problem, Alausa approached a systemic pathology—one requiring diagnosis, trust-building, and disciplined follow-through. Against this backdrop, the new agreement emerges like a long-awaited dawn over Nigeria’s embattled public universities.

    That President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was willing to take this risk speaks to a defining instinct of his administration: a readiness to unsettle inherited certainties and challenge the comfort of familiar formulas. Moving Dr. Alausa from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Education was not a routine reshuffle dressed up as reform; it was a statement of intent. It signalled a quiet but decisive admission that the old approaches had run their course and that the crisis in Nigeria’s university system required an imagination unconstrained by precedent. Critics questioned the logic, wondering what a nephrologist could possibly bring to a sector long dominated by academics and career administrators. Supporters spoke, cautiously at first, of cross-sectoral innovation. With the benefit of hindsight, history is likely to record the move as a turning point.

    What initially looked like a gamble has, by any fair assessment, paid off—most dramatically in the successful renegotiation and signing of a new agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU, and in the relative calm that has since settled over Nigeria’s public universities. In a sector where peace has often been fleeting and promises brittle, calm itself has become a meaningful achievement.

    The agreement has been widely described as historic, and not without justification. After years of brinkmanship, broken trust and ritualised conflict, the new pact marks a clear departure from the cycle of stopgap concessions and deferred obligations that defined earlier settlements. It addresses, with unusual breadth and seriousness, the three pillars most corroded by decades of uncertainty: welfare, funding and trust. At its core is a 40 per cent salary review, an explicit acknowledgment that academic labour in Nigeria has been systematically undervalued. For lecturers whose real incomes had been steadily hollowed out by inflation, delayed payments and eroded purchasing power, the adjustment is more than financial relief. It is symbolic recognition—an affirmation that intellectual labour carries dignity and worth in the eyes of the state.

    That symbolism matters. Universities are sustained as much by morale as by money, and few things have damaged morale more than the sense that academic work was taken for granted. The clearing of long-overdue entitlements and the introduction of the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance represent a further shift in how the state understands the nature of academic labour. Research, publishing, conference participation, and professional engagement are no longer framed as optional extras to be self-financed by underpaid lecturers, but as essential inputs into national development. This reframing is subtle, yet profound. It asserts that universities are not glorified secondary schools focused on rote instruction, but engines of knowledge production whose outputs shape policy, drive innovation, and determine global competitiveness.

    Read Also: Don: why varsities must tackle poverty, unemployment 

    Equally consequential is the agreement’s attention to infrastructure and research capacity. For years, Nigeria’s public universities functioned in conditions that bordered on institutional neglect. Laboratories froze in time, libraries slipped into obsolescence, hostels decayed, and lecture halls bore the scars of prolonged disrepair. Teaching and learning persisted, but often by sheer force of habit and personal sacrifice. The renewed commitment to revitalising physical infrastructure, alongside the proposed establishment of a National Research Council mandated to channel at least one per cent of GDP into research, innovation, and commercialisation, signals an understanding that has long been missing from policy circles: no university system can thrive on goodwill alone. Knowledge production demands sustained, predictable investment, not episodic gestures made in moments of crisis.

    Governance and autonomy—perennial flashpoints in relations between government and ASUU—also receive careful attention. Strengthened pension arrangements, professorial allowances, and protections against victimisation speak to a deeper respect for academic careers as lifelong commitments rather than disposable contracts. The creation of structured mechanisms for dialogue, designed to detect and defuse tensions before they metastasise into strikes, reflects hard lessons drawn from decades of institutional failure. Most tellingly, the inclusion of a three-year review clause embeds accountability into the agreement itself. It acknowledges, implicitly, that reform is not a proclamation to be announced and forgotten, but a process that must be revisited, assessed, and refined.

    Reactions from stakeholders have been cautiously hopeful. ASUU President, Prof Chris Piwuna, described the pact as historic, while rightly emphasising that its promise will only be realised through faithful implementation. Trust, after all, cannot be decreed into existence; it is accumulated slowly, through consistency and action. Students, long treated as collateral damage in protracted industrial disputes, have greeted the prospect of academic continuity with a guarded optimism born of repeated disappointment. Parents, employers, and international partners have taken note of a rare moment of stability in a sector better known for upheaval and uncertainty.

    Yet the agreement, significant as it is, captures only part of Dr. Alausa’s impact. Since assuming office, he has introduced a pattern of governance that bears the unmistakable imprint of medical training. There is a relentless emphasis on data, timelines, and measurable outcomes. Problems are framed less as ideological battlegrounds than as operational failures requiring diagnosis and correction. Whether in streamlining regulatory processes, strengthening monitoring frameworks, or rethinking funding models, his interventions display a clinician’s bias for protocols, evidence and accountability.

    His background as a board-certified nephrologist is not incidental to this approach; it is foundational. Medicine trains its practitioners to listen closely, to distinguish symptoms from underlying causes, and to appreciate that trust between doctor and patient is indispensable to healing. In negotiations with ASUU, this sensibility was palpable. Rather than defaulting to adversarial postures or rhetorical brinkmanship, Alausa invested in sustained engagement, clarity of communication, and incremental confidence-building. He recognised that decades of broken promises had left scars, and that reassurance would ring hollow unless matched by credible, observable action.

    The relative calm now prevailing across Nigeria’s public universities is therefore not accidental. It is the product of a leadership style that treats the education sector as a living system—fragile, interdependent, and vulnerable to shock, yet capable of recovery if handled with seriousness and respect. It is far too early to declare final victory. Nigeria’s education sector has tasted optimism before, only for it to evaporate under fiscal strain, shifting political priorities, or the familiar weight of institutional inertia. History counsels restraint. And yet, for the first time in many years, there is a palpable sense that a long-running cycle has been interrupted. If the new agreement with ASUU endures, Dr. Alausa may well be remembered as the unlikely physician who correctly diagnosed a chronic illness in Nigeria’s education system and, against considerable odds, began the process of treatment.

    No single agreement—however carefully negotiated or widely praised—can undo decades of underinvestment or instantly restore Nigerian universities to global competitiveness. The real test of this moment lies not in the signing of documents but in their execution: in whether commitments are honoured, review mechanisms respected, and channels of dialogue kept open long after the initial goodwill fades. In medicine, relapse is a constant risk when treatment protocols are abandoned midway. Policy is no different. What has been achieved is a break in an old pattern, not immunity from future conflict.

    Still, patterns matter. Jinxes are sustained not by fate but by repetition, by the quiet belief that alternatives are impossible. By showing that negotiation need not collapse into paralysis, that engagement can yield stability, Alausa has shifted expectations. That change, subtle as it may appear, is powerful. Once a system experiences relief, however tentative, returning to dysfunction becomes harder to defend.

    In this light, the image of the nephrologist as jinx breaker is more than metaphor. It reflects a deeper truth about governance in a time of national fatigue. Nigeria’s public institutions are not merely in crisis; they suffer from chronic conditions worsened by neglect and episodic intervention. What they require is sustained, competent care. If this lesson holds, then this episode will stand as proof that even the most entrenched jinxes can be broken—through diagnosis, discipline and the resolve to restore function where resignation once prevailed.

  • CBN pensioners hail FG on ASUU, seek similar gesture

    CBN pensioners hail FG on ASUU, seek similar gesture

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Pensioners have commended the Federal Government for demonstrating political will through the signing of the landmark agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    According to the pensioners, the resolution of a dispute dating back to 2009 clearly shows that the Government can successfully address long-standing industrial and welfare disputes through sincerity, dialogue and faithful commitment to agreements.

    Encouraged by this milestone in the education sector, the CBN Pensioners urged the President to direct the CBN to adopt similar measures toward resolving the 26-year-old pension dispute involving retired CBN staff..

    In a statement by Messrs. David Edogiawerie and Samuel Ehigie Isokpunwu, the pensioners explained that the dispute originated in 1997 following the Federal Government’s introduction of the Policy on Harmonisation of Pensions, which was designed to eliminate disparities among employees who retired on the same grade level and with the same length of service but on different date, which led to the Federal High Court judgment of 22nd May 2000 and culminated in the Supreme Court judgment of 21st May 2010.

    They regretted the CBN has engaged its pensioners in protracted litigation, extending even to enforcement proceedings and alleged acts of intimidation and self-help, despite the matter pending before a competent court.

    “The pensioners appealed to the humane and labour-friendly Federal Government, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to extend to CBN pensioners the same “ASUU spirit” of constructive engagement, fairness, and timely resolution,” the statement pleaded. 

  • FG – ASUU landmark agreement on tertiary education: Tinubu scores bullseye again

    FG – ASUU landmark agreement on tertiary education: Tinubu scores bullseye again

    For nearly two decades, Nigeria’s public university system existed in a state of  uncertainty—never fully open, never fully closed. Each strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), “without a scintilla of doubt the country’s most  disciplined, most serious, and absolutely most focussed Labour Union”(columnist), emptied campuses, fractured academic calendars, and reinforced a national sense of déjà vu: agreements signed, hopes raised, promises broken”- channels TV.com

    If you have not been able to put your hands on the problem with Nigeria, it must be because you have never really put your mind to it as it is so easy to know. It is simply that of a blessed country, home to some of the  best and brightest on the surface of the earth but which have, unfortunately, seen several hundreds of thousands of its citizens voted with their feet, out of the country, simply  because it has been ruled at the topmost level, like for ever,  by its 3rd Eleven – those you will, with considerable justification, describe as emergency, or amateur politicians. It was worse with the military. That, of course, was until the coming into office of the incumbent, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Please come with me as I navigate this obvious truism.

    Prof Richard Adeboye Olaniyan is one   teacher of mine I respect hugely. He taught me History at the University of Ife, Ile – Ife. He had arrived the University from the U.S, during my graduating year, after earning a Ph.D. from Georgetown University,

     Washington D.C.

    A President’s Scholar, and Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, he is the author of several books, among them, ‘IFE: Holy City Of The Yorubas’.

    Today is not about  him; rather it is about the highly thought provoking piece he sent me  sometime ago; and for him to share a WhatsApp post, it must have been worth its weight in gold.

    That post became the theme of my article of  4 June, 2021 about which the new FG – ASUU renegotiated agreement pungently reminds me. It was titled: Cry The Beleaguered Country.

    It becomes germane now that President Tinubu is on the way to returning our Universities, and higher institutions generally,  to an era of sanity and stability again, reminiscent of what he did with the scandalously corrupt Nigerian oil industry when, on his first day in office, he put paid to fuel subsidy, a ruinous sink hole.

    Happy reading.

    Smartest People, Mediocre Nation – The Irony of Nigeria.

    British Nobel laureate,Dorothy Hodgkin, once noted that the University of Lagos was one of the world’s centres of expertise in her field of chemical crystallography.

    Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria had the first world class computer centre in Africa while the University of Ife had a notable pool of expertise in nuclear Physics. Our premier University of Ibadan had an international reputation as a leading centre of excellence in tropical medicine, development economics and the historical sciences. It is no news that the Saudi Royal family used to frequent the UCH, Ibadan, for medical treatment in the sixties.

    The engineering scientist, Ayodele Awojobi, a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was a reputed genius. He tragically died of frustration because our  environment could not contain, let alone utilise, his huge talents.

    Ishaya Shuaibu Audu, pioneer Nigerian Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello, Zaria, collected all the prizes at St. Mary’s University Medical School London. His successor in Zaria, Iya Abubakar, was a highly talented Cambridge mathematician who became a professor at 28 and was a noted consultant to NASA. Alexander Animalu was a gifted MIT physicist who did work of original importance in superconductivity. His book, Intermediate Quantum Theory of Crystalline Solids, has been translated into several languages,  Russian inclusive.

    Renowned mathematician, Chike Obi solved Fermat’s 200-year old conjecture, with pencil and paper, while the Cambridge mathematician, John Wiles, achieved same with the help of a computer, working over a decade.

    Read Also: ASUU, CONUA laud renegotiation deal

    After the harsh environment of the 1980’s IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programme, the Babangida military dictatorship undertook massive budgetary cutbacks in higher education in Nigeria.

    Our best and brightest fled abroad.

    Today, Nigerian doctors, scientists,  engineers etc are making incalculable contributions in Europe and North America.

    Philip Emeagwali won the 1989 Gordon Bell Award for his work in super-computing. Jelani Aliyu designed the first electric car for American automobile giant, General Motors. Olufunmilayo Olopede, Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, won the McArthur Genius Award for her work on cancer.

    Winston Soboyejo, who earned a Cambridge doctorate at 23, is a Princeton engineering professor, laurelled for his contributions to materials research. He is Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Washington University biomedical engineering professor Samuel Achilefu received the St. Louis Award for his invention of cancer-seeing glasses that is a major advance in radiology.

    Kunle Olukotun of Stanford University did work of original importance on multi-processors.

    National Merit laureate Omowunmi Sadik of State University of Binghamton owns patents for biosensors technology. Young Nigerians are also recording stellar performances abroad.

    A Nigerian family, the Imafidons, were voted “the smartest family in Britain” in 2015. 

    Anne marie Imafidon earned her Oxford Masters’ in Mathematics and Computer Science when she was only 19. Today, she sits on several corporate boards and was awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to Science. Recently, Benue State University mathematician Atovigba Michael Vershima  solved the two centuries’ old Riemann Conjecture that has defied giants such as Gauss, Minkowski and Polya.

    Another young man, Hallowed Olaoluwa, was one of a dozen “future Einstein”, awarded postdoctoral fellowships by Harvard University. He completed a remarkable doctorate in mathematical physics at the University of Lagos, aged 21. While at Harvard he aims at focussing on solving problems relating to “quantum ergodicity and quantum chaos”, with applications to medical imaging and robotics.

    Another University of lagos alumnus, Ayodele Dada, graduated with a perfect 5.0 GPA, an unprecedented feat in a Nigerian university. Victor Olalusi recently graduated with such stellar performance at the Russian Medical Research University, Moscow, and was feted as the best graduate throughout the Russian Federation. Habiba Daggash, daughter of  Senator Sanusi Daggash, recently graduated with a starred first in Engineering at Oxford.

    Emmanuel Ohuabunwa earned a GPA of 3.98 out of a possible 4.0 as the best overall graduate of the Ivy-League Johns Hopkins University. Stewart Hendry, Johns Hopkins Professor of Neuroscience, described the young man as having “an intellect so rare that it touches on the unique…a personality that is once-in-a-life-time”.

    There is also young Yemi Adesokan, postdoctoral fellow of Harvard Medical School who patented procedures for tracking the spread of viral epidemics in developing countries.

    Ufot Ekong recently solved a 50-year mathematical riddle at Tokai University in Japan and was voted the most outstanding graduate of the institution. He currently works as an engineer for Nissan, having pocketed two patents in his discipline. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

    If our system were not so inclement to talent we would be celebrating a bountiful harvest of geniuses in all the fields of human endeavour from our home Universities. This is why the correlates between our gene-pool and national development are so diametrically opposed; so bad Nigeria is almost becoming a failed state.

    We punch miserably below our weight in the hierarchy of world economics and politics. None of our institutions come near the top 500 in the World Universities League Table. Almost  50% of our people live in extreme poverty. Youth unemployment hovers around 45 percent ;70% and above, for the far-North.

    The poverty is heartbreaking. Our per capita GDP is less than $3,000 as compared to Singapore’s $55,252.  We have the worst road carnage record in the world, with more than 20,000 lost to road accidents annually.

    We wasted some $16 billion on the power sector during the Obasanjo years and our people still live in darkness, decades after, though he has forgotten all that debacle grandstanding, and sermonising, all over the place. 

    Many state governments, before the removal of fuel subsidy by President Tinubu, were literally bankrupt, and could hardly pay their staff salaries.

    With stability now sure to return to our higher education – and government must extend this sanity to all levels of the country’s educational system – we shl.ould be able to invest in science and innovation, both of which are the way to our future development.

    Without science and innovation we will be unable to  overcome our underdevelopment, and millennial servitude.

    Leveraging on our Universities,

    we should be able to incentivise all-round talent while building a merit-based society.

    In Brazil, a Nobel laureate is entitled, by statute, to the same pension rights as a former President. Society must adequately recognise, and reward, all men and women of excellence.

    Our government should keep a roster of all super-achievers of Nigerian origin whose brains we should tap to build   this country”.

    The first thing to note in the above is that no part of Nigeria  is left out of this sheer embarrassment of riches. So I ask: why do we remain this pathetic?

     As I indicated earlier, the problem lies in our political leadership recruitment process. 

    We continue to see opposition politicians berrating President Tinubu for the bold measures he took at the beginning of his administration, and since, whereas without them, as recently cogently argued by Tunde Lemo, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, the Nigerian economy would since have gone south. Afterall, Venezuela has far more oil reserves than Nigeria can ever dream of. Yet it was in tatters before U. S President Trump’s recent assault on its sovereignty.

    Some even argue that  governance has nothing to do with education, but I’d say that is nothing but gross ignorance.

    Judging by how past governments  messed up our Universities, as a result of which many of our best brains migrated abroad, the place and role of leadership and governance should be more than obvious.

    Nigerians must, therefore,  be very careful in  our choice of leaders, going into the 2027 Presidential election.

     There is this apocryphal story of the Heads of state of the UK, U.S and some other developed countries going to God to remonstrate against His many blessings on Nigeria in human and material resources, whereupon God was reported to have told them,  to go and look at Nigeria’s leadership cadre, whereupon the visitors left happier than  they arrived.

    Was it by chance that not a single Nigerian former Head of state,  came prepared for office? All that the much revered Sir Tafawa Balewa wanted to be was a teacher, perhaps a school headmaster. Even President Obasanjo, to whom some development could be credited, was  only an accidental military Head of state who became President only because some people wanted to profit from military “espirit de corps”.

    Do we have a single  Nigerian Head of state one can  compare with Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the way he equipped, and prepared, himself for political leadership? Wasn’t that why on his death, a British Prime Minister said he could, effortlessly, have been the British Prime Minister?

    How can Nigeria ever develop with our present political architecture in which some members of our legislative houses are barely literate?

    Yes, many will ask legitimate questions as to how well political appointees from within our universities  performed in office?

    The saying that “fish rots from the head down” fully encapsulates the Nigerian condition. It  confirms the fact that leadership is key to organisations, qua organisation, be it a country, a company, or even family.

    The consequences of our political leadership failure are legion. For instance,

    the word, “Andrew” assumed a new meaning in Nigeria when President Obasanjo, as military Head of state, descended on University lecturers, ordering them out of  their accommodation on campus. Many like Professor Isaac Adewole, the former Minister of Health, knew that they had to rapidly bid the country bye.

    Today, not just the family head, but  entire households, are fleeing town – Japa – ing, as they now call it, presenting Nigeria like a beleaguered country with its people, including  top salary earners, with their entire families, thronging Airports, to check out before the apocalypse.

    This is happening especially in areas of the country where people value their children and would  not simply throw them to the elements, or at the mercy of  marauding terrorists.

    The above, and much more, is where puerile political leadership, which neither “incentivises talent”, nor concerns itself with “building a merit-based society”, has landed Nigeria while her best continue to illumine the outside world.

    One needs not dwell on the need for members of ASUU and those other unions that will similarly be impacted, to make the best use of this opportunity for the greater good of Nigeria

  • A day to remember

    A day to remember

    • May the January 18, 2026 agreement between the FG and ASUU permanently end their hostilities. Amen!

    January 18, 2026, would for a long time be remembered in the annals of university education in Nigeria. It was a day that two hitherto sworn ‘enemies’ agreed to sheathe their swords.

    This is significant given the belligerent nature of their relationship, especially since the signing of a controversial 2009 agreement that had been the source of acrimony between the two parties. This had led to strike several times, which paralysed academic activities on our university campuses, and made nonsense of their academic calendars.

    Some accounts say the country’s university system lost about 1,200 days to the 17-year-old crises.

    I am here talking about the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government.

    The 2009 agreement dealt essentially with university funding and budgeting; academic welfare; university autonomy and governance; research and development (R&D); legal frameworks and implementation, as well as implementation and review.

    It was supposed to be a foundational document aimed at revitalising public universities in the country, which, really, were in dire need of revitalisation. However, the agreement suffered poor implementation, leading to incessant strike by the university lecturers.

    On the basis of the agreement, ASUU called its members out on a strike that lasted four months in 2009; followed by another that lasted five months in 2010. There was a 51-day strike in 2011 and another five months strike in 2013. In 2017, ASUU members went on a month-long strike while students were sent packing for three months in 2018.

    As if these were not damaging enough, ASUU went on what could pass for the ‘Mother of all strikes’ in 2020. The strike lasted nine months, followed by another eight months strike in 2022.

    The effects of all these strikes cannot be quantified in financial terms alone. Students who should spend four years on their chosen courses ended up spending six years or more. Of course, students staying at home for longer than necessary were exposed to all manner of dangers, including but not limited to drug taking and sundry crimes. As they say, ‘an idle mind is the devil’s workshop’.

    Abroad, certificates issued by our public universities lost recognition. It was private universities to the rescue.

    It was not that ASUU did not have good reasons to protest. Things were bad enough in our tertiary institutions to make anyone who had an idea of what many of these institutions were in the past, angry.

    Read Also: Nigerian Army remembers fallen soldiers, assures troops of support

    Just that many Nigerians saw ASUU as too rigid in its demands from successive governments, especially its penchant to resort to strike. The truth of the matter is that our higher institutions, including the hitherto iconic ones, have become shadows of their former pristine state.

    Those of us who went to some of these institutions even as late as the 1980s know the kind of things we met on ground, which were even at that time mere remnants of what those who were ahead of us enjoyed in the higher institutions, particularly the universities.

    I remember vividly then that we had foreign lecturers that were among some of the best anywhere in their respective disciplines. Till today, myself and some of my colleagues still speak nostalgically about one of such lecturers, one Father Schuyler.

    Just as we had foreign lecturers then at the University of Lagos, we also had foreign students on the campus from around the globe. These were positive indices about those institutions then. One, foreign lecturers on our university campuses pointed in the direction of the comparative pay the institutions offered, among other things. Foreign students on our campuses, on the other hand, was indication of the high quality of our academic standards.

    All of these are gone with the winds.

    A few months back, I was discussing with one of my seniors at the Federal School of Arts and Science in Ondo, Ondo State, who is now a lecturer at the University of Lagos. When he told me what a professor earns, I felt so sorry, first for myself, and then the country. How come? How did we sink that low?

    How do you attract good hands to the universities if lecturers are not well paid? It is only a matter of time for the institutions to decay because they would not be able to attract brilliant minds and can only recourse to people who just want a job, any job at all, not necessarily people who want to impart knowledge to others. Even if they want to impart knowledge, where do they get it? If they too had it, they wouldn’t be in the universities where they are paid peanuts when they can get better pay outside of the academic environment.

    In the same vein, foreign students would not come to study in universities where students perch on windows to listen to lectures. The state of most of our public higher institutions is just nothing to write home about.

    This reminds me of what a student in one of the public higher institutions told me about two weeks ago. I am talking specifically about The Polytechnic, Ibadan. We were discussing on why the student chose to stay off campus when there are hostel facilities on the campus. I expected her to say it was because they didn’t have enough space to go round. But what she said surprised me: she said many of them chose to stay off-campus because the toilets and some other facilities were bad. And, as if to punish the students for the bad state of the facilities, the institution forces those of them who chose to stay outside to pay about 50 per cent of the accommodation fee for what it calls “hostel refusal”!

    In our time, we did everything possible to stay on the campus. The situation must be so bad for many students to want to stay off-campus, given the many advantages. Of course, a few may want to stay outside because they have free accommodation somewhere around or because they want to do some other things beyond what their parents sent them to do in school. But there is cause to worry when majority fall for the off-campus accommodation and, on top of that, they are forced to pay for refusing to stay in the hostels.

    Let no one get me wrong. The Polytechnic, Ibadan, might not be alone in this. It is only a metaphor for the state of affairs in many of our public higher institutions. Perhaps the institution itself was forced to be collecting money for a service not rendered as a result of the larger malaise of underfunding that the institutions are grappling with.

    Given the afore-stated, among others, one would think successive governments would have dealt with the tertiary institutions’ matter with utmost urgency. That they didn’t, and only kept flexing muscles with the union lent the governments open to accusations of being insensitive to the plight of the students and their parents.

    Although the neglect that these institutions suffered from successive governments was not good enough, ASUU still got the chunk of the blame for its inability to think out of the box for solutions to the universities’ seemingly intractable problems. As people in the ivory towers, Nigerians expected them to be more creative in dealing with the government.

    Indeed, this penchant for strike led to the formation of CONUA, the Congress of University Academics, which has always opposed ASUU’s flagrant recourse to strike to settle disputes with the government.

    Be that as it may, it is good that, as they say, “all is well that ends well”.

    The ASUU/government feud has only confirmed what Ralph Waldo Emerson said that “Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” Many other people have affirmed this saying in different words. For instance, Sun Tzu also said that “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

    It is incredible that the braggadocio and an ego war that has lasted so long could end, albeit at a roundtable without, literally put, any single ‘shot’ being fired. But that is the way of all wars.

    I am not sure that many Nigerians were aware of the processes that led to the signing of the agreement. Even if they were, they would have simply dismissed it as improbable fiction.

    But here we are today, celebrating what should herald hope of uninterrupted academic activities in our universities, a thing that has eluded us for years.

    Although one would have to see the details of the current agreement before drawing conclusions, one needs to remind the government that the curtains cannot be drawn on the challenges in the universities without attention paid to the aforementioned areas and others outside of the universities.

    The Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has come a long way in barely 30 months in office, particularly in the area of tertiary education.

    The government’s student loan scheme, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), alone speaks to this commitment. It is one major way of demonstrating its resolve to expand access to tertiary education.

    At least about N89.94 billion has been paid directly to 263 tertiary institutions for tuition and institutional fees, and N72.03 billion paid directly to students as upkeep allowances at N20,000 per student, for the over 864,798 students that had benefitted from the fund as at January 13.

    As the Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, noted, “These figures are not just statistics. They represent real lives impacted, real barriers removed, and real opportunities created.”

    I commend the Tinubu administration for coming this far on the ASUU crisis. Specifically, the Minister of Education too, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, should be commended.

    But, as we have seen with past pacts, the problem is not in signing agreements, the issue is honouring them. This government must do its utmost to honour the agreement. At least we did not see anyone pointing a gun at the other person before it was signed.

    Not only that, it is not only our university teachers that have been clamouring for better conditions of service. Their counterparts in the nonacademic unions, teachers in the polytechnics, etc. also deserve consideration. Mercifully the minister acknowledged that much: “I can assure you that the ASUP and the NASU agreements will be finalised as well.”

    Again, as Dr Alausa observed, “However, we cannot resolve a 20-year-old problem in just two and a half years,” nonetheless, we urge it to sustain the tempo such that our public higher institutions would gradually begin to regain their lost glory.

    This is the expectation if we must avert the kind of violence that we are battling with in the northern parts of the country. Half-baked graduates are only a shade better than stark illiterates.

    What would it benefit us if we invest so much in education only to reap whirlwinds in return? God forbids,

    We must never return to the ugly era of incessant strike. This is a cautionary note to both the government and ASUU.

  • ASUU, CONUA laud renegotiation deal

    ASUU, CONUA laud renegotiation deal

    • ‘More adjustments needed’

    The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Chris Piwuna, has praised the Federal Government’s presentation of renegotiated agreements between the union and the government.

    This happened as the Congress of University Academics (CONUA) acknowledged the conclusion of the renegotiation process between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in 2025.

    The new rapport, CONUA noted, arose from the 2009 agreement that had remained unresolved for many years.

    But Piwuna said there were still pending issues, which he described as internal, militating against the progress and survival of the university system.

    The ASUU president listed these as: government persistent encroachment into the Autonomy of the universities.

    Piwuna stressed that university autonomy is universally recognised as a cornerstone of a functional higher education system, adding that in Nigeria, although university autonomy is recognised in principle and partially entrenched in law, its practical implementation remains weak.

    “Finally, we are optimistic that the agreement will be implemented in totality by the Federal Government, but there still exists that pessimistic side, looking at our history with the government and the poverty of sincerity.

    Read Also: Pillarcraft is NRS System Integrator

    “It is our belief that the union would not need to issue a strike threat for the full implementation of the 2025 ASUU-FGN Renegotiated Agreement,” he said.

    The ASUU president expressed gratitude that research and development (R&D) funding is a component of the 2025 ASUU-FG renegotiated agreement, adding that Nigerian universities have faced paucity of research funding for a very long time.

    He decried the economic situation in the country, describing it as “hard” for the university system and the citizens.

    Piwuna urged the government to look for ways to make life easy for the masses.

    “Meals are hard to come by, transportation is still a challenge, and families are struggling to keep body and soul together,” he lamented.

    Also, CONUA said negotiations in the tertiary education sector were ongoing and extended beyond a single union.

    It acknowledged that discussions had continued with other unions in the university system, including its members, within the broader framework of sector-wide engagement aimed at improving conditions of service, institutional stability, and educational quality.

    In the interest of comprehensive reform and lasting industrial peace in Nigeria’s tertiary education system, CONUA’s President Niyi Sunmonu, urged the Federal Government to expedite negotiations with all recognised and registered unions, including CONUA.

    Sunmonu also stated that inclusive and timely engagement with all stakeholders would ensure equity, reduce tensions, and promote sustainable stability across the university system.

    “CONUA remains committed to constructive dialogue, responsible unionism, and policies that strengthen Nigeria’s higher education sector for the benefit of staff, students, and the nation at large,” Sunmonu said.

    Clarifying the collective bargaining and union pluralism, the CONUA president stressed that the right of workers to form and belong to unions of their choice is firmly guaranteed under Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Trade Unions Act, and relevant International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions.

    He added that CONUA’s participation in ongoing discussions with the Federal Government is anchored in these settled legal and constitutional provisions.

    “Our approach remains constructive, responsible, and focused on the welfare of university academics and the stability of the university system.

    “CONUA will continue to engage calmly and professionally within the existing negotiation process, in the interest of uninterrupted academic calendars and sustainable reforms in Nigerian universities,” Sunmonu added.

  • SSANU, NASU, NANS, NAPTAN, varsity don laud Fed Govt, ASUU on new deal

    SSANU, NASU, NANS, NAPTAN, varsity don laud Fed Govt, ASUU on new deal

    The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has commended the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for signing the 2009 FGN – ASUU renegotiation agreement with the Federal Government.

    Also yesterday, former Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti and  Professor of International Relations, Kayode Soremekun, President National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), Alhaji Haruna Danjuma and Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Adeyemi Samson Ajasa, hailed the agreement.

    The agreement was presented to the public yesterday by Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, at an event attended by former ASUU presidents, ministers, academics, senators, Rep members among others.

    However, the JAC of SSANU, NASU urged the government to expedite action on the pending renegotiation with NASU and SSANU.

    A statement signed by Prince Peters Adeyemi, General Secretary, NASU and Mohammed Ibrahim, President, SSANU and Chairman of JAC, said: “JAC of NASU and SSANU remains committed to the entrenchment of industrial harmony and sustainable communities in our universities, and calls on the Federal Government to ensure expedited action in the ongoing renegotiation with NASU and SSANU, as any further delay after the signing of today’s agreement with our sister union would be tantamount to a clear invitation to chaos, and the distortion of industrial peace which we have continued to maintain despite government’s continued insensitivity to the university system and the gruesome conditions under which our members are made to work.

    READ ALSO: Banks, fintechs to take VAT on mobile, USSD transfer charges

    “JAC notes that timely conclusion of the ongoing renegotiation with NASU and SSANU would avert the breakdown of industrial peace and harmony in the system, and hereby advises the Federal Government not to stir the hornet’s nest through any form of delay tactics.”

    Danjuma, in a chat with The Nation, said: “It’s a great turning point in restoring stability, trust and quality in Nigerian tertiary education systems if Federal Government stands by the agreement, and on the other side I urge ASUU to accept the agreement now that the government has unveiled the renegotiation agreement as part of their own contributions, we therefore commend the efforts of the Minister of Education for facilitating this agreement, and we hope he will ensure total execution of the agreement.”

    Ajasa said: “I  believe this new agreement will build a new stability and ensure proper funding of education, with all these previous agitations  resolved.

    “I believe it will take proper and immediate effect,  whereby all parties will be satisfied.

    “This should also  motivate the lecturers and staff to do their  best and deliver proper education and teaching and learning to students, including proper research works.

    “So, we believe that will change the narrative of what we are having today in terms of education. This will motivate the lecturers and give  them a renewed commitment to do their best. We believe that this will also solve the over 16 years of stalled negotiations and bring about a fresh breath.

    “We applaud the Federal Government for their effort and for reaching a consensus on the way forward.

    “A  message to both parties is  that they should  be sincere.

    “If possible, the National Assembly should be aware of it. Any party that fails  to meet up to their own side should be penalized and it should be made public.

    “We want the government to be sincere and   not  allow bureaucratic deficiencies and likes to stall it or to affect it.

    “ASUU also should try as much as possible to play their own part and make use of it in good way and allow it to show in their  output and delivery.”

    For Soremekun, Tinubu administration’s action with the final signing of the renegotiated agreement was a significant and positive step.

    Soremekun, in an interview with Nation, said: “And I believe that if it is sustained, Nigeria will be well on its way to ensuring a better and wholesome university system. And I’m saying this with the highest sense of responsibility, because as a university teacher, I’ve applied my trade within Nigeria and outside Nigeria. And I believe that the greatest blessing that any ruling class can do for itself is to give a wholesome profile to the knowledge industry.

    “I’m saying this because the knowledge industry does not stand on its own. It is supposed to have an organic link. It’s supposed to be an organic link between knowledge on one hand and the policy corridor on the other.

    “But in Nigeria, this is not the case. The hope here is that this administration will move forward to ensure an organic linkage between knowledge on one hand and policy on the other. I’m saying this because of countless examples around the world.

    “If we have any problem in this country today, I can assure you that such a problem would have been addressed by professors in the universities. But unfortunately, you don’t see this linkage. The policy corridor just goes on its own, and the knowledge industry just goes on its own.”

    The professor added: “People hardly realize that the Second World War was not just fought by bombs and bullets, but it was fought by the knowledge systems in Britain and the United States. This is what I want to see happen. So, it’s not just an agreement between the government on one hand and us on the other.

    “I see it as a first step in terms of ensuring that there’s an organic linkage between knowledge and policy. I’m saying this because when they have problems anywhere in other parts of the world, especially in developed countries, they turn to the university system. If you are talking of a sugar policy, if you are talking of value addition policies, if you are talking of backward linkages – all these issues have been addressed in the university.

    “It is only left for the government to link up with them. Are you getting my point. So in saying this, what the government has done is very, very good.

    “But at the same time, I also want to be cautiously optimistic. Here is hoping that the government will move fast to implement this agreement.”

    And I want to say something.

    “The government and ASUU, they have to be commended for one thing. They did not allow this particular situation to degenerate into a street fight, unlike earlier times when ASUU would go on strike for months until something happens. This time around, they have responded very well to the issue in a concrete way.

    “I also want to commend the government for something. They have been able to take care of professors. That the professor will now go home after retirement with his full pay. I think they more than deserve this.”

  • Renegotiated deal: A turning point in restoring stability, trust in varsities

    Renegotiated deal: A turning point in restoring stability, trust in varsities

    • 40 per cent pay rise for varsity teachers in Fed Govt, ASUU renegotiated agreement

    The Federal Government yesterday inked a new agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), 16 years after the last agreement was signed. The signing of the renegotiated FGN-ASUU 2009 agreement, which was a product of collective bargaining (CBA), is expected to strengthen the university system and ensure stability in academic calendar, FRANK IKPEFAN reports.

    Many Nigerians had hoped that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would have to embark on another round of strike before the Federal Government would honour the recent renegotiated agreement with the union.

    This is because for decades, unresolved remuneration concerns, welfare gaps, and recurring industrial disputes disrupted academic calendars, undermined staff morale, and threatened the future of the young people in the universities.

    But, against that line of thought, the Federal Government yesterday unveiled the renegotiated agreement with the ASUU, 16 years after the last agreement was signed to continue to keep the gates of universities open. The government described it as a turning point in restoring stability, trust and quality in the university education system.

    Even before the unveiling ceremony, the government had kick-started the implementation of some aspects of the agreement reached on December 23, 2025, which marked the end of the 16-year crisis in the university education.

    Before yesterday’s event, the government had through a letter from the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC) directed relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to begin the implementation of the component relating to the allowances for the academics.

    Chairperson of the NSIWC, Ekpo Nta, had in the letter addressed to MDAs, including the Head of Civil Service, Ministry of Finance and Accountant General of the Federation, said the government has approved the reviewed remuneration and directed implementation from January 1.

     The academics are now entitled to increased allowances for Consolidated Academic Tools Allowances (CATA), secretarial allowance for professors and readers, and Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), the letter said.

        These allowances have existed since 2009, but ASUU had accused the government of failing to release them to the academics. The union had also called for its review upwards among others since 2012, as agreed in the 2009 agreement.

    Also, under this current renegotiated agreement, the Nigerian Government has announced that full-time Professors in Nigerian universities will henceforth receive an additional annual allowance of N1.8 million, even as full-time Readers are now to receive an additional N870,000 annual salary increase.

    He explained that under the new structure, professors would receive an additional N1.8 million per annum, amounting to about N140,000 monthly, while academic readers would receive N840,000 per annum, or N70,000 monthly.

    Minister: it’s our commitment to quality and uninterrupted academic calendars

    The signing of the renegotiated FGN-ASUU 2009 agreement, which was a product of collective bargaining (CBA), is expected to strengthen the university system and ensure stability in academic calendar.

        Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa presented the signed agreement to the public yesterday at an event attended by Vice – Chancellors, Registrars, past and present presidents of ASUU; senators, House of Representative members; academics among others.

    READ ALSO: Rage therapy

        The 2025 renegotiated agreement is the outcome of a prolonged renegotiation process initiated in 2017 to review the 2009 FGN–ASUU agreement, to revitalise Nigeria’s university system.

    It is hoped that the faithful implementation of the agreement will contribute to industrial harmony, improve working conditions for academic staff, enhance teaching and research outcomes, and ensure a more predictable academic calendar for students and their families.

    Alausa confirmed that the implementation of the signed agreement will commence this month, with the+ circular already issued to the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, on the salary component of the agreement.

     Key components of the agreement

    Under the new deal, the emolument of university academic was reviewed upward by 40% to enhance morale, improve quality of service delivery and global competitiveness of Nigerian Tertiary Educational institutions, while reversing Brain Drain.

    The Earned Academic Allowances of university teachers, which are nine in number, have been clearly structured, transparently earned, and strictly tied to duties performed, thereby promoting productivity, accountability, and fairness.

    The allowances also consist of enhanced provisions for postgraduate supervision, fieldwork, clinical duties, moderation, examination responsibilities, and leadership roles within the tertiary education system.

    For the first time, the government also approved a new Professorial Cadre Allowance. This allowance applies to senior academics at the level of full-time Professors and Readers in tertiary institutions. The allowance applies strictly to full-time, and not part-time professors and readers.

    The breakdown shows that: Professors are to earn additional N1,740,000 per annum — equivalent to N140,000 per month and N840,000 per annum — equivalent to N70,000 per month — for Readers.

    The government explained that the professorial cadre allowance was specifically designed to support research coordination, academic documentation, correspondence, and administrative efficiency—thereby enabling our scholars to focus more effectively on teaching, innovation, mentorship, and global knowledge production.

    According to Alausa, the intervention is not cosmetic but structural, practical, and transformative.

    The minister explained that with the support, direction, and guidance of President Bola Tinubu, the government confronted what many had described as an intractable problem—and we have resolved it decisively, now and into the future.

    Alausa said: “This administration did not shy away from complexity; we confronted it squarely. Through sustained engagement, fiscal realism, and mutual respect, we have laid a durable foundation for industrial harmony in our Federal Tertiary Educational Institutions.

    “Let me state this clearly: it is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, who has taken us to where we are today. His unwavering commitment, hands-on guidance, and steadfast belief in education as a national investment made this achievement possible.”

    A new era for Nigerian universities

    The renegotiated agreement ushers in a new era of stability, dignity, and excellence for Nigeria’s tertiary education system.

    It is expected to restore confidence to lecturers, predictability to academic calendars, and hope to millions of students and parents across the country.

    Also speaking at the signing, Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad said the unveiling of the FGN–ASUU Agreement was not merely the conclusion of a negotiation process but the renewal of a covenant, a covenant between government and the academic community, and ultimately between the state and the Nigerian child.

    She said: “That is why this Agreement carries a deeper significance. It represents a shared resolve to break with the past, to replace confrontation with collaboration, and to anchor engagement on trust rather than suspicion.

    “The Federal Government, under the visionary leadership of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, remains firmly committed to the Renewed Hope Agenda, which places education at the heart of national transformation. This administration recognises that a stable, well-funded, and globally competitive university system is indispensable to Nigeria’s aspirations for innovation, productivity, and inclusive growth.”

    According to her, the process leading to the agreement was driven by sincerity, patience, and a shared understanding that while differences may arise, they can and must be resolved through constructive engagement.

    She commended the leadership of ASUU and the government negotiation team under the leadership of Ahmed for demonstrating maturity, patriotism, and a focus on the greater good throughout the engagement process.

    New deal is aimed at repositioning varsities for growth, says Piwuna

    President of ASUU, Chris Piwuna said that the agreement focused on conditions of service, funding, university autonomy and academic freedom, as well as other systemic reforms aimed at reversing decay, curbing brain drain and repositioning universities for national development.

    He commended Ahmed and members of the renegotiation team, Alausa, and President Tinubu for their commitment to concluding the renegotiation process.

    The ASUU president said: “We are optimistic that the agreement will be implemented in totality by the Federal Government, but there still exists that pessimistic side, looking at our history with the government and the poverty of sincerity.

    “It is our belief that the union would not need to issue a strike threat for the full implementation of the 2025 ASUU-FGN Renegotiated agreement.”

    Mismanagement, governance gaps undermining universities, says ASUU

    But, ASUU at the event also raised concerns over alleged mismanagement of funds and governance weaknesses in some universities across the country.

    Pinuwa warned that the situation was undermining accountability, stability and academic standards in the system.

    He noted that weak governance structures had continued to affect effective utilisation of resources in some institutions.

    The ASUU president said that although university autonomy was recognised in principle and partially entrenched in the law, its practical implementation remained weak, leading to persistent external interference in university administration.

    According to him, arbitrary dissolution of governing councils and interference in the appointment of vice-chancellors have become recurring challenges which undermine meritocracy and erode institutional stability.

    Pinuwa noted that such interventions had often resulted in conflicts, litigation and staff polarisation within universities, thereby disrupting academic activities and effective management.

    He also expressed concerns about the creeping culture of prolonged acting vice-chancellorship in universities, calling for greater scrutiny of governing councils and principal officers to safeguard institutional integrity.

    On research funding, the ASUU president said adequate funding was critical to relevance and global competitiveness of Nigerian universities.

    He added that research and development funding formed a key component of the 2025 re-negotiated agreement with the federal government.

     “Nigerian universities have faced paucity of research funding for a very long time, and I’m glad that research and development funding is a component of the 2025 ASUU-FG re-negotiated agreement.

    “It was agreed that the National Research Council (NRC) Bill shall be forwarded to the National Assembly for consideration.

      “The proposed bill shall provide for at least one per cent equivalent of GDP as a source of funding for research, innovation and development.

    “It is my belief that, as stakeholders, members of the National Assembly will expedite action in the passage of the bill,” he said.

     The ASUU president also criticised promotion practices in some newly-established federal universities of education, alleging that due process and established standards for professorial appointments were being compromised.

    According to him, the conversion of colleges of education to universities should not erode established academic standards.

    Consequently, Pinuwa called on vice-chancellors of the affected institutions to urgently review such promotions to protect the integrity of the university system.

  • Long road to new agreement

    Long road to new agreement

    At last, it is hurrah to the commitment of President Bola Tinubu-led government for bringing  hope, relief and a breath of fresh air  to the nation’s  education, with the  unveiling of  a renegotiated agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    The  ripples hitherto created by contentious 2009 Agreement will be laid to rest, perhaps, since  the Federal Government has demonstrated the will to rewrite the sector’s narrative.

    Observers described it as turning point  in Nigeria’s tertiary education system, signalling the intent and resolve of President Bola Tinubu to ensure  accessible, quality and uninterrupted academic calendars.

    But it was a tortuous journey to the signing of  the latest agreement, one strewn with obstacles to say the least.

     Previous attempts to review the 2009 Agreement were fruitless despite the intervention of four committees.

    The agreement  due for renegotiation in 2012, after three years, dragged on due to disagreements from both the Federal Government and ASUU.

    The  government had established a committee led by Wale Babalakin, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and erstwhile pro-chancellor of the University of Lagos, in 2017 to review the 2009 agreement but the committee was unable complete the review.

    Another committee headed by Chairman, Committee of Pro-chancellors, Prof Munzali Jibril in 2020 under the administration of late President Muhammadu Buhari was also set up.

    READ ALSO: Rage therapy

    In 2021, the Munzali committee working with the union produced recommendations in a draft agreement within three months.

    The  government then  rejected the salary structure proposed by the committee, with the  insistence there were no funds  to pay university teachers.

    With no headway in sight, the Buhari-led  administration created  another committee headed by the late Emeritus Prof Nimi Briggs.

    On June 16, 2022, the Briggs Committee submitted a draft agreement to the government, terming it a product of collective bargaining, but the government didn’t implement the recommendations.

    This culminated in the 2022 industrial action which lasted October, prompting the National Industrial Court to order a suspension of the strike after a suit was instituted against ASUU by the Federal Government.

    In 2024, erstwhile Education Minister, Prof. Tahir Mamman inaugurated the Yayale Ahmed-led committee to handle the renegotiation of agreements with university – based unions.

    This led to the signing of this present agreement, and fresh breath of hope.

    The journey from the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement to the 2025 renegotiated settlement demonstrates the ultra-complex nature of sanitising  Nigeria’s public university system. The  2009 Agreement served as a  crucial starting point to an anticipated bright future, though the foot dragging on implementation tainted the whole system and generated much furore all the years.

    Observers wait with bated breath to see if this current settlement will signal the death knell to incessant strikes and disruptions in the nation’s education space.

  • Fed Govt, ASUU to sign agreement to strengthen varsity system

    Fed Govt, ASUU to sign agreement to strengthen varsity system

    A PACT aimed at strengthening industrial harmony, improving teaching and learning conditions in the university system are to be sealed by the Federal Government with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), it was learnt yesterday.

    The agreement would also advance sustainable development within the Nigerian university system, the government confirmed in a statement by Boriowo Folasade, Director, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education.

    Both parties, the statement said, are billed to sign the agreement on Wednesday in Abuja at a ceremony to be presided over by Education Minister Dr. Tunji Alausa with  Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmad.

    The statement described the scheduled signing as a significant milestone in the government’s ongoing efforts to foster a stable, productive, and globally competitive higher education sector.

    Read Also: Defence Minister: Tinubu prioritises welfare, equipment of Armed Forces

    It reads: “The agreement underscores the Federal Government’s unwavering commitment to constructive engagement with critical stakeholders and the resolution of industrial issues through sustained dialogue, mutual understanding, and cooperation.

    “It is expected to further enhance industrial peace across Nigerian universities, create a more conducive academic environment, and reinforce confidence among students, staff, and the wider public.

    “This development aligns squarely with Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda (RHA), which recognises education as a strategic driver of national development, human capital growth, and socio-economic transformation.

    “The ceremony will bring together senior government officials, representatives of ASUU, heads of tertiary institutions, development partners, and members of the media, reflecting a broad-based commitment to the advancement of Nigeria’s education sector.”

    The government reiterated its dedication to sustaining reforms that will strengthen the university system and ensure the delivery of quality, accessible, and globally relevant education for all Nigerians.

    “Members of the public are encouraged to follow the Ministry’s official communication channels for updates and highlights from the ceremony,” the statement added.