The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Owerri Zone, has revealed issue over what it described as the Federal government’s sluggish and irregular application of the 2025 agreement reached with the union, warning that continued delays could threaten stability in Nigeria’s university system.
The union attracted President Bola Tinubu to urgently intervene in unsolved wage, pension, and welfare matters impacting lecturers, stressing that extended delays risk undermining the vulnerable industrial peace currently existing in public universities.
Speaking during a press conference on Tuesday at the ASUU Secretariat of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, the Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Dennis Aribodor, stated the government’s failure to fully implement the agreement was wearing down the trust built following its unveiling in January 2026.
Aribodor, accompanied by other union officials, faulted what he described as selective and disjointed execution of the agreement across organizations, urging stakeholders consisting of standard rulers, spiritual leaders, moms and dads, trainees, arranged labour, media organisations, and civil society groups to press both federal and state federal governments to honour the pact.
The ASUU Owerri Zone consists of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State University, Michael Okpara University of Farming, Umudike, and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
According to the union leader, the government’s hold-up in setting up the Implementation Tracking Committee (IMC), which was anticipated to oversee the execution of the agreement and avoid administrative bottlenecks, has actually contributed substantially to the existing challenges.
He declared that application by government companies and some university administrators had actually been uneven, noting that specific federal organizations were selectively paying components of approved scholastic allowances instead of integrating them into the combined salary structure as concurred.
Aribodor also criticised numerous state federal governments for stopping working to domesticate the contract despite the involvement of representatives of state university governing councils throughout settlements.
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While acknowledging compliance by some institutions in parts of Northern and Western Nigeria, he regreted that no state university in the South-East had adopted the contract’s provisions.
The union condemned what it called partial or outright non-implementation of the wage part of the agreement by some vice-chancellors, firmly insisting that governments must uphold both the spirit and provisions of the deal to sustain industrial consistency within universities.
Aribodor preserved that ASUU remained devoted to guaranteeing members benefited completely from gains secured throughout the eight-year negotiation duration spanning 2017 to 2025.
He further argued that the lack of the implementation committee had actually likewise impacted progress on another major element of the agreement, the proposed National Research Council.
The ASUU organizer criticised the continued use of the “no work, no pay” policy against speakers, describing it as a practice that lessens academics by relating academic work solely with physical presence at the workplace.
He identified unresolved concerns impacting members to consist of impressive defaults tied to the 25– 35 per cent income award, overdue promo arrears, and hold-ups in remitting third-party reductions such as pension contributions, cooperative reductions, union charges, and national real estate fund payments.
Aribodor likewise questioned current strategies announced by the Minister of Education worrying the facility of a National Research and Development Fund.
According to him, the proposed funding structure, apparently valued at $500 million, appeared disconnected from the arrangements of the 2025 FG-ASUU arrangement, which suggests allocating at least one percent of the nation’s GDP to research, innovation, and development funding.
While mentioning that the union welcomed contributions from ministries, firms, and other stakeholders towards reinforcing research funding, he firmly insisted that federal government ought to align such efforts with the structures currently laid out in the agreement.
The union alerted versus attempts by external interests to divert the nation’s research agenda from its agreed goals and questioned the reasoning behind denominating the proposed fund in foreign currency.
ASUU Owerri Zone reiterated its attract key stakeholders across the nation to mount pressure on federal and state authorities to guarantee full application of the 2025 FG-ASUU contract and fix sticking around concerns to avoid interruptions within Nigerian universities.