Education
ASUU Shifts Struggle To Tinubu Govt, Says FG Yet To Meet Demands
The incoming administration of the president-elect, Bola Tinubu will inherit the lingering crisis between the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and the Federal Government as the union’s demands are yet to be met, DAILY POST gathered.
Recall that the union had in 2022, shut down public universities across the country for at least eight months over the failure of the Federal Government to meet its demands.
The federal government, after several failed attempts to resolve the issues and return the lecturers to class in 2022, dragged ASUU to the National Industrial Court, following a breakdown of negotiations.
Consequently, the Court granted the government’s plea for an injunction for ASUU members to resume work pending the resolution of the case.
The order of the court for ASUU to resume work was also upheld by the appeal court after the union approached it.
The appeal court gave ASUU up till October 14 to obey its order or be charged with contempt. That led to the suspension of the prolonged industrial action on October 14.
Among many other issues, the union is demanding the following:
Funding for revitalisation of tertiary institutions
The Federal Government had in 2009 and 2013, agreed to inject a total of N1.3 trillion into public universities, both state and federal, in six tranches, starting from 2013, following the union’s complaint of deplorable state of Nigerian universities.
According to the agreement, the FG was to release N200 billion in 2013, and N220 billion for the five subsequent years.
After releasing the first tranche, the government stopped releasing the funds, leading to a fresh face-off. In 2017, the federal government released N20 billion while it promised N25 billion in 2020.
The union, however, rejected the offer, insisting on N110 billion, which is 50 percent of a tranche of N220 billion that it had demanded, but the government declined, citing paucity of funds.
In a move to put the issues to rest, the FG had asked ASUU to suggest other sources of funding.
Payment of outstanding earned academic allowances (EAA)
The Federal Government had in 2009 agreed to pay lecturers EAA, but failed to implement the agreement as the issue lingered for years.
However, the FG agreed to pay the first tranche of the backlog of allowances in November 2019 and the second installment by August 2020, but still failed to fulfill the promises.
ASUU also demanded mainstreaming payments of EAA into the annual budgets, beginning from the 2019 budget.
In 2020, the FG agreed to pay N40 billion. The government, however, said it had released N22.127 billion earned allowances of both academic and non-academic workers of universities to 38 universities.
26 percent budgetary allocation to education sector
The union had in its previous struggles demanded that 26 percent of Nigeria’s annual budget should be allocated to education, and half of that allocation should be directed to universities.
Implementation of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
ASUU had rejected the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System IPPIS, a payment platform introduced by the FG over many reasons.
The union had argued that the system would make university operations difficult and inefficient, stating that universities operate a flexible payroll system to ensure flexible recruitment of lectures, to attract scholars from across the world, among others.
This prompted the introduction of University Transparency and Accountability Solution UTAS by ASUU with the claim that it passed the integrity test by the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
The IPPIS was said to be a foreign platform, while UTAS is a locally developed system, which some stakeholders said the government should prioritize in a bid to appreciate local content.
DAILY POST reports that barely two weeks ago, on April 4, President Muhammadu Buhari approved N320,345,040,835 as the 2023 intervention fund for public tertiary educational institutions in the country.
Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Sonny Echono, disclosed this during the Fund’s yearly strategic planning workshop with all heads of beneficiary institutions.
According to the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) the disbursement of the N320.3 billion as an intervention fund for the institutions remains the biggest in the last 30 years.
But ASUU National President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke told DAILY POST that the current administration does not value education.
He explained that the N320.3 billion was not part of the union’s current demands, saying they struggled for it since 1994.
Taking cognizant of the fact that the President Buhari-led government would elapse in the next few weeks, ASUU president told DAILY POST that the union is keenly looking forward to interacting with the Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
He said, “The Federal Government has not met our demands. The N320.3 billion is not part of our demands. This is what we fought for in 1994. It is not Federal Government’s funding. It is funded by the public sectors, by taxpayers.
“Our plan is to see how we can interact with the next government with the hope that the next administration will have education as its priority unlike the current government that doesn’t care about education”.
Tinubu, the president-elect who is expected to take over leadership of the country from May 29, 2023, had during his campaigns in 2022, promised to prioritize education if elected president.
Lagos State government has sealed Tower College of Health Sciences in Gberigbe, Ikorodu, for operating an illegal nursing program.
A joint enforcement team on Thursday, comprising officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Health through the Directorate of Nursing Services (DNS), the Nursing and Midwifery Committee of Lagos State, and the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwife (NANNM), Lagos State branch, with men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), stormed the school premises to enforce the closure.
During the operation, the Director of the college, Femi Ajekigbe was arrested and has been taken into custody for questioning and further legal action by the State.
Speaking to journalists after the closure, Mrs Sola Aketi, the Director of Nursing Services, Lagos State Ministry of Health noted that the institution had been notified of the imminent closure after an inspection team from the Nursing and Midwifery Committee of the state had earlier visited the institution in January 20, 2025, to assess its compliance with standards but several irregularities were uncovered.
According to her, the team led by Dr. Oladapo Olawale, alongside Nurse Ilawole, Comrade Ayobami Amusan and Comrade Idowu Osuntuyi reported that Tower College of Health Sciences failed to meet basic academic and infrastructural requirements for nursing education and consequently lacked accreditation from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, NMCN.
She confirmed that Tower College is just one of many unaccredited institutions operating in Lagos and vowed to extend the clampdown to other illegal nursing schools as the State will no longer condone such dangerous death traps.
Aketi said, “As a result of this closure, the illegal institution will cease all nursing training and educational activities with immediate effect.
“We have several of these schools across the state, and we will not stop until they are all shut down.
“Any further operation of the college is be considered unauthorized and dangerous to the people of Ikorodu and Lagos in general,” she added.
She warned that activities of these unapproved health institutions are dangerous and inimical to the well-being of any society and weaken the state healthcare delivery system.
Dr. Olawale Oladapo, who led the team in January 20, 2025 had advised the Association and the state government that the school lacked basic requirements needed for accreditation and so included in his report the immediate closure of the illegal school for the safety of the people.
In his report, he observed that, “the school had no demonstration room, no hospital affiliation for clinical postings, and no hostel accommodation for students who shockingly were already in their 300 level without undergoing any clinical training and resource verification from the nursing council.
“The inspection committee, however, recommended the immediate closure of the school, withdrawal of all students, and also the licenses of individuals parading themselves as nursing tutors without approval,” Oladapo noted.
Following the report, the Nursing and Midwifery Committee of the State and the Lagos State Ministry of Health issued a formal closure notice dated 20th February 2025, signed by Dr. Olawale Oladapo, Secretary of the Committee.
The letter stated that the decision to close the institution was due to failure to meet the minimum standards for accreditation as outlined in NMCN regulations, non-compliance with repeated warnings to correct identified deficiencies and evidence of substandard training and education, posing risks to the health, safety, and wellbeing of students and the public.
The premises have since been sealed and placed under surveillance to prevent any further unauthorized operation of the college as contrary action will be considered unauthorized and may result in legal action.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) on Sunday said that the student loan scheme has crossed one million applications on its official portal.
The organisation noted that this marked one of the biggest uptake levels for a government-backed social scheme since the start of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
NELFUND, in a statement by the Director, Strategic Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, stated that the milestone comes barely one year after the programme’s launch on 24 May 2024, describing it as proof that the student loan initiative is gaining strong national traction and public trust.
It said that over ₦116bn has so far been disbursed to students across universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria, covering institutional charges and upkeep allowances.
The Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, said the development reflected the impact of the President Tinubu Renewed Hope policy drive on access to higher education.
The statement explained: “Crossing the one-million mark represents more than data; it represents renewed hope for a generation of Nigerians determined to rise above financial barriers to education.
“It is a testament to visionary leadership, sound policy design, and the collective efforts of all stakeholders driving this transformative agenda.”
NELFUND reiterated that it is committed to continuous process improvement to make sure “every qualified Nigerian student, regardless of background or location, can access education funding with transparency, efficiency, and dignity.”
The agency described the programme as non-discriminatory — saying it benefits Nigerians across religions and ethnic backgrounds — and is helping to unify national aspirations through equal learning opportunities.
It said it remains focused on ensuring “no Nigerian is denied the opportunity to learn, grow or contribute to national progress because of financial limitations.”
The Academic Staff Union of Universities has announced the suspension of its ongoing two-week warning strike.
The National President of ASUU, Prof. Chris Piwuna, made this known in an ongoing press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to Piwuna, the decision stemmed from the meeting of the National Executive Council meeting which was held overnight and ended by 4:00 am on Wednesday.
Piwuna noted that the union decided to embark on the strike due to the failure of the government to meet its demands on time.
“We’ve had useful engagements with representatives of the government to consider the response to the draft renegotiation of the 2009 agreements. However, we are definitely not where we were prior to the commencement of the strike.
“The union acknowledged that the government returned to the negotiation table. While noting that a lot more work is still required, NEC came to the conclusion that the ongoing strike should be reviewed. The decision to review the strike action was a result of efforts by our students, parents, and the Nigeria Labour Congress.
“Consequently, NEC resolved to suspend the warning strike to reciprocate the efforts of well-meaning Nigerians.”
Recall that ASUU declared a total and comprehensive warning strike starting from Monday, October 13.
ASUU is currently demanding the conclusion of the renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, the release of the withheld three and a half months’ salaries, sustainable funding of public universities, revitalisation of public universities, and cessation of the victimisation of lecturers in LASU, Prince Abubakar Audu University, and FUTO.
Others are payment of outstanding 25-35% salary arrears, payment of promotion arrears for over four years and release of withheld third-party deductions (cooperative contributions, union check-off dues).
Boko Haram Demands $300,000 Ransom For Abducted Borno Ex-LG Chair, Another Victim
How Rivers Women Spread Wrappers For Wike’s Motorcade During Port Harcourt Visit
Impeachment Proceedings Against Fubara, Deputy Still Active – Rivers Assembly
Your Second Coming Was A Chance To Avoid These Political Mistakes – Fayose To Fubara
Corruption Battle: Dangote Drags Ex-NMDPRA Boss To EFCC After ICPC Withdrawal
Rivers Crisis: Full List Of 8 Misconduct Allegations Against Governor Fubara
Panic In Ibadan As Rising Kidnap, Robbery Threats Trigger Official Red Alert
Wizkid Becomes First African Artist To Enter Spotify’s 10 Billion Streams Elite
Funke Akindele’s Behind The Scenes Becomes West Africa’s All-Time Box Office King
Rivers Assembly Formally Serves Impeachment Notice To Gov. Fubara
-
News2 days agoImpeachment Proceedings Against Fubara, Deputy Still Active – Rivers Assembly
-
News2 days agoYour Second Coming Was A Chance To Avoid These Political Mistakes – Fayose To Fubara
-
News1 day agoHow Rivers Women Spread Wrappers For Wike’s Motorcade During Port Harcourt Visit
-
News13 hours agoBoko Haram Demands $300,000 Ransom For Abducted Borno Ex-LG Chair, Another Victim