We’re not ruling out strike in fighting for our pending demands, says ASUU
From Bashir Rabe Mani in Sokoto
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says it is not ruling out embarking on strike to press home its pending demands from the Federal and State governments.
This came to the fore on Thursday in Sokoto at a press conference addressed by the Sokoto Zonal Coordinator of the union, Prof. Abubakar Sabo.
According to him, the union is however currently exploring the political tools available to it, saying that they include dialogue and advocacies to a myriad of critical stakeholders like visits to leaders.
“This is with the view to appealing to them to intervene and make the governments to see the reasons to solve these peening issues and do the needful in time,” the ASUU Boss added.
Prof. Abubakar Sabo further said that the union would not therefore hesitate to embark on the strike action after duly exhausting all the ”available political tools.
“The strike action will be the last resort as it always affects us all. Some of us are students too while we have our children and siblings as students also,” ” he explained further.
The don decried that ASUU is concerned about the non implementation of the agreement it had reached between the government and the union in 2025, which was signed in 2026.
Prof. Abubakar Sabo added, “It is absolutely clear that the government only understands the language of strike but to us, it is the.last resort.”
He also added that the union is seriously concerned with political interference in some Universities, citing the example of recruiting some unqualified staff for some institutions.
He said, “Universities should not be the centre points to play politics. This is very dangerous for the university system
“We are also concerned with the proliferation of public Universities in spite of the seven-year moratorium which was reportedly breached by the Federal Government.
“We are not concerned with quantity but quality, unfortunately, some Universities have now become constituency projects being pursued by lawmakers.
“Consequently, the governments are left with a retinue of Universities they cannot adequately fund.”
Prof. Abubakar Sabo said that the press briefing was convened to brief the public on the outcome of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting which was held at the Modibbo Adama University, Yola, on 9th and 10th May, 2026.
“We therefore wish to present our position on the implementation of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement as well as other issues affecting our University system and the nation at large, ” the don averred.
Decrying the “slow, distorted and partial implementation of the agreement”, the union lamented that the government had failed to inaugurate the Implementation Monitoring Committee (OMC)
Prof. Abubakar Sabo added that this creates room for bureaucratic delays, inconsistenties and selective implementation by University administrators.
He listed some of the thorny issues to include, among others, arrears of the 25 to 35 per cent salary award, salary shortfalls arising from the IPPIS platform, unremitted third party deductions, administrative irregularities and governance issues.
