President Bola Tinubu’s administration faces a crucial test of its controversial zero-strike policy as not less than 12 state-owned universities have reportedly shut down amid industrial disputes, raising concerns over the government’s ability to prevent tertiary education disruptions.
President Tinubu had earlier instructed the Ministry of Education and related agencies to treat industrial peace as a strict priority, declaring that tertiary education union strikes should permanently cease.
The president, during a meeting with the leadership of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) at the State House in Abuja. expressed delight at the absence of strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), describing it as an answer to the country’s prayers.
However, a BusinessDay finding shows that not less than 12 state-owned universities have shut down since the president declared ‘four-year courses now four years, end of ASUU strikes policy ‘.
Currently, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Abia State University, Imo State University, Nasarawa State University, Plateau State University, Ambrose Alli University, Adekunle Ajasin University, Kaduna State University, Taraba State University and Gombe State University, among others.
The 2025 FGN-ASUU agreement was supposed to help restore industrial peace, but the failure of the governments to honour the agreement has triggered a devastating ripple effect across state-owned universities.
Stakeholders are worried that if the FG-ASUU agreement was meant to prevent cycles of academic disruptions, why are state universities already facing incessant shutdown threats, and what will another lost academic year cost the states in human capital?
Jessica Osuere, the chief executive officer at RubiesHubs Educational Services, describes the ASUU strike ravaging many states as a symptom of a deeper crisis.
“At the heart of the dispute are unimplemented agreements, poor remuneration, inadequate university funding, research challenges and deteriorating working conditions,” she said.
Nubi Achebo, director of academic planning at Nigerian University of Technology and Management (NUTM), expressed concerns that the implementation of the 2025 FG-ASUU Agreement has been patchy.
According to ASUU, “the implementation has been ‘characterised by varying degrees of distortions across federal and state universities.’ Some universities have paid two to three allowances, while others haven’t started,” he noted.
Besides, the federal government has failed to institute a monitoring committee to ensure compliance. ASUU decried the fact that the federal government and the Ministry of Education did not deem it necessary to inaugurate the implementation monitoring committee; hence, most of the universities are ‘picking and choosing’ what to pay.
More disturbing is the fact that the federal government seems to have taken a position that it has ‘fulfilled its obligation’ for federal institutions and is pushing for uniform rollout, but ASUU argues the reality on the ground is salary shortfalls and unpaid entitlements.
Experts argue that the inadequacy of the federal government is creating an unnecessary disparity in the public tertiary institutions space.
Christopher Nmeribe, an educationist, queried the disposition of the federal government to promise the lecturers a 40 percent allowance inducement without making the needed provision for its implementation.
Besides, he argued that the state governments should have been part of the deliberations as a way of getting their commitments before going to the media to announce the proposal.
“While ASUU primarily negotiates with the federal government regarding federal institutions, these disputes trigger a devastating ripple effect across state-owned universities,” he noted.
However, Kayode Soremekun, former vice-chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, believes the lecturers and university management should have known that, in terms of historical dynamics, what is on display has always happened.
“Anytime there is an agreement between the federal government and ASUU, there is always a time lag between when the federal government responds and when the various state governments come into their own as regards the pact.
“What we are seeing borders on normalcy, but this normalcy should not be allowed to linger for too long. I believe that the various state governments should as soon as possible do their level best to consummate the tenets of the agreement,” he said.
This, he said, is because it is even in the interest of the various state governments to keep faith with the agreement in a timely way.
“For the longer the delay, the more onerous will be the outstanding obligations which will continue to pile up.
However, it is relevant to state here that the situation has been made easier for the state governments by the huge transfers from the President Tinubu administration in the wake of the fuel subsidy removal,” he noted.
Soremekun reiterated that the development is dangerous because, if the strikes should persist, there will be some form of internal brain drain. “The implication is that talented academics will move from state universities to federal universities,” he said.
