The Federal Government has maintained that it has addressed all the demands made by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), insisting there is no justification for the union’s ongoing strike.
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, stated this on Monday during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, where he appealed to the lecturers to return to work.
“We have addressed every single request by ASUU; there is no need for this strike, and we are pleading with them to go back to school.
“We need to keep our children in school. If there is any group of people that I have met with the most since I assumed this position, it is ASUU,” Alausa said.
The minister dismissed claims that the government had been slow or reluctant to meet ASUU’s demands, outlining the steps already taken to resolve the issues.
“The arrears of their earned academic allowance, we’ve paid ₦50 billion. The President swiftly approved that payment months ago. Why they had earned academic arrears was that they didn’t want the arrears were mainstreamed as part of their salary, which was the best way, but they now came back and we talked to them.
“The earned academic arrears have now been mainstreamed as their salaries. There will never be arrears again.
“We’ve also addressed issues about the postgraduate supervision allowances, which are to be paid by the institutions, and I’ve been told that these are being paid.
“There are issues about the needs assessment money, which was not released. If you remember, this assessment was negotiated by them almost 20 years ago, but this government met those liabilities,” he said.
Alausa added that President Bola Tinubu remained committed to maintaining a fair relationship with labour unions while ensuring stability in the tertiary education sector.
“The President approved ₦150 billion of his assessment money in this 2026 budget; ₦50 billion of that has been released. The President promised us he would release this in tranches of ₦50 billion over three payments; the first one has been released, it is sitting in the needs assessment account now.
“For us not to dispose of money, it’s ASUU that is holding those disbursements. The promotion arrears, we told them this will be paid with the 2026 budget, which will be appropriated as part of the 2026 appropriation budget, but what was causing the arrears, we’ve resolved that,” the minister said.
ASUU leadership on Sunday night declared a total and comprehensive two-week warning strike across all public universities in Nigeria.
The union’s National President, Professor Chris Piwuna, explained that the 14-day ultimatum issued on September 28, 2025, had expired without a satisfactory response from the authorities.
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