Students Threaten Nationwide Shutdown as ASUU Warns of Fresh Strike

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has threatened to paralyse critical infrastructure across the country if the Federal Government fails to resolve lingering issues with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which on Monday again warned of an imminent nationwide strike.

NANS Assistant General Secretary, Emmanuel Adejuwon, speaking with newsmen in Abuja, said Nigerian students would not remain silent if ASUU proceeds with its threat.

“If this strike is not averted, we will shut down roads, airports, government offices, and critical infrastructure until the future of Nigerian students is secured. The time for games is over. The Federal Government must act now. ASUU must act responsibly. And Nigerian students will not sit idle while our future is wasted” Adejuwon declared.

He argued that strike actions disproportionately hurt children of ordinary Nigerians, while politicians whose policies created the crisis remain unaffected because their children school abroad or in private universities.

“If the children of these politicians were in our public institutions, this issue would have been resolved immediately” he added.

Adejuwon accused the government of endless promises and insincerity, insisting students were tired of “being victims of leadership irresponsibility.” He demanded urgent implementation of ASUU’s demands, but also urged the union to reconsider weaponising strikes.

“Every strike elongates our years in school and diminishes the quality of our education. Lecturers must understand that their struggle, no matter how just, should not become a weapon against the same students they claim to fight for,” he said.

Across its branches, ASUU on Monday reaffirmed its demands, warning that another strike was unavoidable unless the government acted swiftly.

In Ibadan, Zonal Coordinator Prof. Biodun Olaniran urged the government to implement the Yayale Ahmed report, submitted in February, which he said addressed all contentious issues but had been left unattended.

“The true test of government’s sincerity lies in how it handles the report,” Olaniran said, listing concerns including the unimplemented 2009 FGN–ASUU Agreement on university funding, withheld promotion arrears, outstanding 25–35 per cent salary awards, unpaid deductions, and rejection of the IPPIS salary platform.

He lamented worsening conditions:

“Many of our members cannot educate their children and are forced into borrowing. Poor funding, unpaid salaries, and erosion of autonomy have worsened brain drain.”

Olaniran also condemned the dissolution of Governing Councils in public universities “without due process,” describing it as an attack on university autonomy.

At the briefing were branch leaders from UI, UNILORIN, LAUTECH, UNIOSUN, KWASU, and Emmanuel Alayande University of Education.

In Abuja, ASUU Zonal Coordinator Prof. Al-Amin Abdullahi restated demands for implementation of the 2009 Agreement, release of three and a half months’ withheld salaries, adoption of UTAS, payment of arrears, and increased funding.

“There is a crisis in Nigeria’s universities, and it endangers generations yet unborn,” Abdullahi warned, stressing that successive governments had underfunded universities, leaving “overcrowded classrooms, ill-equipped laboratories, and inhabitable hostels.”

In Uyo, Calabar Zone Coordinator Dr. Ikechukwu Igwenyi rejected the recently launched Tertiary Institution Staff Loan Scheme, describing it as a distraction from government’s failure to renegotiate salaries since 2012 or pay longstanding arrears.

“It is insulting that a government that has refused to honour agreements now offers an impossible and slavish loan scheme. It is nothing but a poison chalice,” he said.

Igwenyi warned that ASUU’s August 28 meeting with the Federal Government would be its last.

With frustration mounting, both lecturers and students see the upcoming August 28 meeting as decisive. ASUU insists the government must act to restore trust, while NANS vows massive protests if another shutdown of universities occurs.

Adejuwon summed up the mood:

“The time for games is over. Nigerian students will not sit idle while our future is wasted.”