ASUU to FG: Pay Our Arrears or Face Another Strike Action

By Chukwuemeka Egejuru and Ekebuisi Precious

 

Academic activities at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State, were disrupted on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, as members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) staged a peaceful protest over what they described as “inhumane treatment” by the Federal Government.

The protest, which was part of a nationwide demonstration held across all ASUU branches in the 36 states of the federation, saw lecturers at MOUAU troop out in large numbers. They marched around the university campus with placards bearing inscriptions such as: “Government Makes Lecturing Job Unattractive, So the Japa Syndrome,” “National Assembly, Pay Us Before You Increase Your Own Salary,” and “Tertiary Institution Staff Support Fund is a Scam.”

Speaking with journalists, the MOUAU ASUU branch Chairman, Professor Michael Chikezie Ugwuene, decried the Federal Government’s failure to implement the renegotiated 2009 ASUU-FG agreement, which has been reviewed three times without being signed into law. He lamented that lecturers have remained on the same salary scale for over 15 years despite continuous service to the nation.

“Our professors are not earning more than ₦500,000 monthly. Imagine professors who have trained graduates and contributed immensely to nation-building still being owed three and a half years of salary arrears. This is unacceptable,” Ugwuene said.

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He further criticized the government’s Tertiary Institution Staff Support Fund (TISSF) loan scheme, describing it as “another distraction” and insisting that what lecturers need is a living wage and proper funding of universities, not loans that will burden already struggling academics.

Other senior academics, including Professors Charles Chukwuma Ononuju, Uzochukwu Onyebinama, Chukwuma Ofor, Chinyere Echendu, Mabel Ifeoma Onwuka and Rev. Sister Dr. Celestina Adaku Ogazie, expressed frustration at what they called the Federal Government’s insensitivity. They noted that a situation where a professor takes home less than ₦500,000 monthly while struggling to pay rent, children’s school fees, and other family expenses was both humiliating and demoralizing.

They emphasized that lecturers have continued to graduate students and produce professionals across fields despite being owed arrears and denied fair remuneration. “We have made wonders through the graduates we have produced, yet we have been cast aside from the rewards of those wonders,” Prof. Onyebinama said.

On their part, Echendu and Ogazie lamented the endless cycle of fruitless negotiations with government and appealed to President Bola Tinubu’s administration to “do the right thing” by honoring agreements and prioritizing education.

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Meanwhile, some concerned students of the university who wouldn’t want their names on print pleaded with the Federal Government to urgently resolve the dispute, noting that another nationwide ASUU strike could cripple the academic calendar and jeopardize their future.

ASUU has maintained that the protest was a final warning, stressing that unless the Federal Government takes concrete action, the union will have no choice but to embark on a full-blown nationwide strike.