ASUU Strike: Nigerian Universities Grind to a Halt as Lecturers Walk Out

By: Abudu Olalekan

Well, here we go again. The familiar, dreaded script is playing out. Classrooms are empty. Lecture halls, silent. As of today, Monday, the 13th of October, 2025, Nigeria’s public universities are officially on hold. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has made good on its threat. They’ve commenced a two-week warning strike, and the mood is beyond frustrated.

It’s a total and comprehensive shutdown. That’s the direct order from ASUU’s National President, Prof. Chris Piwuna. He made the announcement in Abuja on Sunday, right as the union’s two-week ultimatum to the government ticked down to zero. His words were blunt. “There is nothing sufficient on the ground,” he told reporters. Nothing to stop the strike. So, from midnight, lecturers across the country were directed to down tools and walk away.

This whole situation is just messy. And it’s especially frustrating because just last week, it seemed like there was a flicker of hope. The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, was talking a big game. He said the government was in the “final phase” of talks. He pointed to the N50 billion released for Earned Academic Allowances and another N150 billion tucked into the 2025 budget for university revitalization. He made it sound like a deal was just around the corner.

Turns out, it wasn’t. The government, scrambling to meet ASUU’s deadline, presented a proposal last Friday. ASUU took one look at it and rejected it outright. From what we’re hearing from our sources at Reportersroom, the offer was a non-starter. It was a “total departure,” as Piwuna put it, from what was previously discussed. He called the documents “hurriedly packaged,” “provocative,” and incapable of dousing the industrial tension. Ouch.

So what exactly does ASUU want? The list is long, and for anyone who’s followed this saga, painfully familiar. They’re demanding the government finally conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement—a document that’s become a ghost haunting our universities. They want three and a half months of withheld salaries released. They’re pushing for sustainable university funding and an end to the victimization of their colleagues in unis like LASU and FUTO. Oh, and there’s also the small matter of outstanding salary arrears, promotion arrears stuck for over four years, and withheld third-party deductions like union dues. It’s a catalog of broken promises.

The government’s side of the story is all about wounded pride. A highly placed source in the ministry claims the Education Minister tried to reach the ASUU leadership by phone, but his calls were rejected. They feel they made a “comprehensive offer” and are now just waiting for an official response from the union, an response that may never come since the strike is already on.

And now, the threats are flying. On Sunday night, the Federal Government fired back with a statement, threatening to invoke the “no-work-no-pay” policy. The Ministers of Education, Alausa and Prof Suwaiba Ahmad, pleaded for dialogue but made it clear that the extant labour law would guide them. It’s a classic standoff. The government says it’s showing “goodwill and flexibility,” while ASUU feels it’s been strung along for too long.

Caught in the middle, as always, are the students. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) is watching this all unfold with a deep sense of dread. Their Assistant General Secretary, Adejuwon Emmanuel, told Reportersroom that students have “endured too many disruptions.” He’s right. Another strike just piles more hardship on them. NANS is trying to mediate, urging both sides to show sincerity, but you can hear the exhaustion in their appeal. They don’t want to be sacrificial lambs for bureaucracy and broken promises again.

And as if one brewing crisis wasn’t enough, the polytechnic lecturers are also in the wings. The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has given the government a six-week window to deliver on its promises. For now, they’ve held off on a strike, noting the Minister’s “good faith” on some issues. But the clock is ticking there, too.

So the campuses are quiet. Eerily so. It’s a two-week warning, a shot across the bow. But in Nigeria, warnings have a way of stretching into months, then years. Everyone is talking, but is anyone really listening? The lecturers feel they have no other choice. The government says it’s trying. And the students are just hoping they don’t become the collateral damage, once again.