For the first time, Nigeria’s tertiary education system faces intense scrutiny under the Bola Tinubu administration.
On Monday, the Academic Staff Union of Universities commenced a two-week warning strike, halting academic activities across public institutions. This strike poses a litmus test for both President Tinubu and Education Minister Tunji Alausa.
At the outset of his administration in May 2023, Tinubu pledged there would be no ASUU strike during his tenure. That promise now hangs in the air. The President must swiftly apply his acclaimed sagacity to avert a full-blown strike that would cripple the university system once again.
The situation already hints at escalating tensions between lecturers and the government. On Monday, the Federal Government imposed a ‘no-work-no-pay’ rule on striking ASUU members.
For ASUU, this government directive is tantamount to a ‘declaration of war.’ In retrospect, it is hasty and risks deepening the divide.
A warning strike should have been the last resort. For the government, genuine dialogue and political will to address ASUU’s demands remain the better path.
Instructively, ASUU had restrained itself from striking in line with Tinubu’s mantra that there would be no ASUU strike under his watch.
For decades, the crippling ASUU strikes until 2022 gave relevance to the promise.
The ongoing ASUU warning strike undermines that promise. However, Nigeria cannot afford another disruptive university strike after decades of instability in the higher education system, resulting in wasted time and resources for both staff and students.
To be fair, the warning strike is tied to the 2009 MoU between ASUU and the Federal Government for the revitalisation of universities. The value was N1.2 trillion. Successive governments breached the agreement.
In the latest face-off, Alausa said the Federal Government was addressing the demands of the union and that progress was already being made in the ongoing negotiations between both parties. He said the Federal Government had released N50 billion for Earned Academic Allowances and included N150 billion in the 2025 budget for needs assessment.
The Minister explained that the Yayale Ahmed-led Federal Government Tertiary Institutions Expanded Negotiation Committee had been reconstituted and inaugurated to fast-track talks with both academic and non-academic unions in universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
However, ASUU faulted the Federal Government’s last-minute intervention and the appeals to the union to suspend the warning strike, saying the intervention came “a little too late. The warning strike was declared after a 14-day ultimatum given to the Federal Government to address its demands.”
ASUU President, Chris Piwuna, said, “The problem we have with this government and this Ministry of Education is that they are slow in responding to our demands.
“They gave us three weeks. We accepted the three weeks, but we never heard a word from them until the three weeks elapsed — not a word from them…. Nothing, until we threatened action.
“Yesterday (two work days to the commencement of the proposed strike), they appealed to us not to embark on action. Our 2009 agreement — which is still being renegotiated after eight years — remains undone. We have not concluded on it, and two working days before a strike action, you come to appeal to us. I think the appeal has come a little too late.”
In August, ASUU members rallied and protested on campuses to compel government action, yet the situation remains unresolved.
The Federal Government’s response appears uncoordinated in strategy, procedure, and content.
First, it ignored ASUU’s demands for the three weeks it requested. Second, it only responded two workdays after the 14-day ultimatum expired. Third, it delayed meaningful action and dialogue. Fourth, rather than signing the Yayale Ahmed Agreement, it created a new committee, contradicting prior agreements with the union.
The handling of the strike gives the impression that this government is following in the footsteps of its predecessors in an offhand attitude concerning university education.
The Federal Government, under successive governments since the 2009 MoU, has consistently declined to release N220 billion per year as agreed, thus compelling ASUU to protest on different occasions.
Rather than funding and revitalising the existing universities, the Federal Government continued to establish new ones to join the slew of ill-equipped institutions.
During this period, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari have been the President. Tinubu has spent more than two years without a solution to the ASUU crisis.
The President declared in his 2025 Independence Day broadcast that there were 274 universities in Nigeria in 2024, up from 170 universities in 2009. That means nothing if such institutions are not fit for purpose.
There are 74 federal universities in Nigeria currently; the 36 states record 67 universities in addition to 159 private institutions.
Before a recent moratorium, the Tinubu administration established at least 12 public tertiary institutions within two years, including eight universities, two polytechnics, and two colleges of education for largely political reasons.
Yet Nigerian universities have suffered chronic underfunding for decades, with lecturers grossly underpaid. A former Obafemi Awolowo University Vice-Chancellor, Wande Abimbola, once remarked that a gardener in the US earns more than a Nigerian university professor.
Poor pay disparity fuels brain drain, pushing top talent abroad. A former University of Lagos Vice-Chancellor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe noted that 239 first-class graduates employed by the university left within six years due to salary issues. ASUU said that 309 professors have resigned within the last nine months in search of better working conditions abroad.
Alarmingly, the Tinubu administration is also considering replacing TETFund, an effective infrastructure funding mechanism proposed by ASUU, with NELFUND, a student loan initiative serving only a fraction of students.
Strikes deliver nothing but harm to Nigerian universities and their communities. They disrupt academic calendars, exclude institutions from global collaboration, degrade education quality, prolong course durations, affect students’ mental health, and impose financial burdens on parents.
Decades of neglect by federal and state governments show in education’s paltry budget allocations. While UNICEF recommends 20-25 per cent expenditure on education, Nigeria’s federal allocation has hovered between just 3.0 and 7.0 per cent.
All three tiers of government must unite to revitalise education.
The Tinubu administration should reset its priorities. While it cites limited funds to honour the 2009 ASUU agreement and support education, it recently spent N5 billion renovating the Vice-President’s lodge, $150 million on a Presidential jet, N57.6 billion on SUVs for lawmakers, and paid senators N500 million annually for nebulous constituency projects.
But education must be adequately funded and positioned to compete globally, driving growth in all sectors.
The President should consider a supplementary budget to meet ASUU’s demands. No expense is too high for securing the education of tomorrow’s leaders and Nigeria’s future.
The National Assembly should stop treating tertiary education as mere constituency projects.
Nigeria lags in STEM education, innovation, and industrialisation amid a huge deficit of high-quality manpower due to the chronically poor investments in higher education. This must change under Tinubu.
Moreover, the government should audit public tertiary institutions and merge as needed to optimise resources.
Tinubu’s promise to prevent strikes during his tenure is more than a pledge; it is a commitment to transform the Nigerian university system to compete effectively globally.
Fulfilling this promise would be the greatest legacy President Tinubu could leave.
