Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) across Nigeria have begun withdrawing their services following a directive issued by the union’s National Executive Council (NEC). The action is in response to the Federal Government’s failure to pay June 2025 salaries by the agreed timeline, in line with the union’s “No Pay, No Work” resolution.
Branches of the union at the University of Jos and the University of Abuja are among the first to have commenced the strike action. The President of ASUU, Professor Chris Piwuna, confirmed the development on Monday in Abuja, stating that all unpaid branches are expected to join the industrial action.
“What they are doing is just enforcing a NEC resolution,” Professor Piwuna said. “We agreed at NEC that our members are going through a lot since our migration out of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS). Certainly, our salaries are delayed for a week and sometimes 10 days before our members receive the paltry amount we get to help us carry out our duties well. Therefore, we agreed that if there is no pay, there will be no work.”
Professor Piwuna expressed deep frustration over what he described as the government’s “lackadaisical attitude” towards lecturers’ welfare, noting that despite engagements with relevant officials, including the Minister of Education and the Accountant General of the Federation, no solution has been provided.
The union blames the recent transition to the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) for worsening delays in salary disbursement, though ASUU insists the problem lies not in the platform itself, but in deliberate inaction by officials at the Office of the Accountant General.
“The platform through which the payment is effected has not been the problem,” Piwuna added. “It’s just a deliberate effort by the Office of the Accountant General to delay the release of the funds. The platform is working well, but those who make it work are not willing to make it work.”
Chairman of the University of Jos branch of ASUU, Jurbe Molwus, confirmed the strike by members, saying the decision was based on both the NEC resolution and the consensus reached at the local congress. He stated that academic staff had stopped attending lectures and statutory meetings, with a strike monitoring team activated to ensure full compliance.
Similarly, members of the University of Abuja branch of ASUU reportedly withdrew their services on Monday due to the salary delay, although the branch chairman, Dr Sylvanus Ugoh, was unavailable to confirm. When contacted, the University’s spokesperson, Dr Habib Yakoob, declined to comment on the matter, referring enquiries to the ASUU branch.
ASUU’s President also issued a warning to the Federal Government over the outstanding N10 billion in Earned Academic Allowance (EAA). He stated that while N50 billion was initially pledged, only N40 billion has been disbursed to date.
“We hope that this is paid quickly so that we do not have to fight over it,” he said, noting that the EAA issue, if not resolved soon, could spark another round of industrial unrest.
