The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has declared the suspension of its two-week warning strike while granting the Federal Government a one-month period to conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and resolve other lingering issues affecting the nation’s university system.
The announcement was made on Wednesday by the union’s president, Prof. Chris Piwuna, during a press briefing in Abuja. He explained that the decision followed constructive engagements with the Federal Government and key interventions from the National Assembly.
Piwuna recalled that ASUU had embarked on the warning strike on October 13, 2025, due to what he described as the government’s consistent failure to respond to several appeals to address the long-standing renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and other welfare concerns of university lecturers.
He said, “When we gathered here about 10 days ago to painfully declare a warning strike, it was a decision that left us with no other choice. The government had ignored our repeated overtures to address issues critical to the survival of Nigeria’s public universities.”
The ASUU president disclosed that following the commencement of the strike, the Federal Government re-opened discussions with the union through a team led by Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, which held meetings with ASUU representatives on October 16 and 18 to deliberate on the government’s response to the draft renegotiated agreement.
According to him, though the meetings did not completely resolve all the matters in dispute, there had been notable progress compared to the situation before the industrial action.
He said, “We have not achieved all our objectives, but we are certainly not where we were before the strike began. This shows that had the government responded earlier, there would have been no need for the action.”
Piwuna appreciated the intervention of the Senate Committees on Tertiary Education and TETFund, and Labour, as well as the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin, whose mediation, he said, had renewed hope for a sustainable resolution.
He stated that the National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU, after an emergency meeting held between October 21 and 22, 2025, reviewed the situation and concluded that the warning strike had achieved part of its goal, particularly in compelling the government to return to the negotiation table.
“While noting that more work remains to be done, NEC resolved to suspend the warning strike to allow for a conducive atmosphere for further engagement,” Piwuna announced.
He added that the decision was made in consideration of students, parents, the media, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and other well-meaning Nigerians who had shown understanding and intervened in the matter.
However, ASUU cautioned that if the government failed to address the unresolved issues within the one-month window, the union would be compelled to resume strike action without further warning.
“The struggle continues,” Piwuna declared, urging patriotic Nigerians to prevail on the government to fulfil its promises and ensure lasting industrial peace and stability in the academic calendar.
