The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its two-week warning strike, effective from midnight of Wednesday, October 22, 2025.
ASUU’s National President, Prof. Chris Piwuna, announced the suspension at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.
However, he issued a stern warning, “the union will not hesitate to resume the strike if the government fails to meet its demands within the next four weeks.”
This ultimatum aligns with a recent threat from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).Following a meeting with ASUU and other tertiary institution-based unions, NLC President Joe Ajaero had given the federal government a four-week deadline to resolve all outstanding issues across the sector.
“We have decided to give the federal government four weeks to conclude all negotiations in this sector,” Ajaero stated, emphasizing that the issues go beyond ASUU alone. He threatened that if negotiations were not concluded within the stipulated time, the NLC would activate nationwide action involving all workers and unions in the country. “The era of signing agreements, negotiations and threatening the unions involved, that era has come to an end,” he added.
Prof. Piwuna had initially declared the two-week “total and comprehensive” strike on October 13, 2025, after a 14-day ultimatum to the government expired.
The strike was prompted by unresolved issues, including staff welfare, infrastructure, salary arrears, and the implementation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement.
However, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, had criticized the strike action, arguing that talks were in their final phase. The Minister pointed out that the government had released N50 billion for earned academic allowances and allocated N150 billion in the 2025 budget for a needs assessment, to be disbursed in three installments. Following the strike declaration, Alausa directed the enforcement of the “No work, no pay policy.”
The NLC’s interactive session on Monday involved leaders from tertiary institution-based unions, including ASUU, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
