High Hopes as Education Minister Leads Bold Push to Resolve ASUU Crisis
- The federal government is making a move to finally close the chapter on the lingering 2009 Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) agreement
- The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, will lead a federal delegation with university lecturers on Thursday, August 28, 2025
- The high-stakes meeting is expected to examine how to implement the renegotiated 2009 FGN–ASUU agreement
Legit.ng journalist Adekunle Dada has over 8 years of experience covering metro, government policy, and international issues
FCT, Abuja - The President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led federal government will convene a high-stakes meeting with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday, August 28, 2025, in Abuja.
The government is expected to make a counteroffer to the lecturers in a bid to translate years of stalled renegotiations into concrete, implementable commitments.
Source: Twitter
The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, will join the Minister of Labour and representatives of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) and the Solicitor General to meet ASUU leaders in Abuja.
According to sources, they are expected to examine how to finally implement the renegotiated 2009 FGN–ASUU agreement and related reports produced in the most recent round of negotiations.
According to officials, the meeting will be tasked with delivering a clear timetable for signature and phased implementation.
This is coming after warnings from ASUU leaders that the draft must now be signed and implemented to avert another nationwide shutdown of public universities.
The 2009 agreement signed under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua remains the touchstone of the dispute.
Yar’adua’s agreement promised comprehensive reforms to Nigeria’s public universities, including sustained revitalisation funding, institutional autonomy, a negotiated salary and conditions package for academics, and a monitoring framework for implementation.
Its partial or non-implementation across successive administrations has led to recurring strikes.
The outcome of the meeting will test Tinubu’s administration’s commitment to ending the cycle of strikes that has defined university life for decades.
Minister Alausa’s stakes are equally high: converting early applause for the N50 billion settlement and the BRIDGE platform into lasting agreements that can be signed, implemented, and sustained.
If the process delivers, the 2009 agreement, long a source of frustration and lost opportunity, could finally be brought to a close not by promises, but by action.
Source: Twitter
ASUU shuts Uniuyo, suspends exams
Recall that ASUU members embarked on a nationwide protest on Tuesday, August 26, 2025.
The ASUU members in the University of Uyo (Uniuyo) in Akwa Ibom state shut down the school and suspended the ongoing examination.
The situation was not different at the University of Abuja (UniAbuja) in the FCT, as lecturers joined the nationwide protest over the 2009 agreement on salaries.
239 first-class lecturers quit UNILAG
Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that the immediate past vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, lamented the mass exodus in Nigerian universities over poor funding and salaries.
Ogundipe explained how 239 first-class lecturers from UNILAG left within seven years after they were employed.
The former VC issued a serious warning to the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led federal government that if adequate funds are not provided for the educational sector.
Source: Legit.ng
