The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Abuja Zone, has raised the alarm over what it described as “disturbing and worsening conditions” at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, and Nasarawa State University, Keffi, blaming neglect by the Niger and Nasarawa State governments.
Addressing a press conference at NSUK on Monday, Zonal Coordinator Comrade Al-Amin Adam Abdullahi said both institutions “are gradually sliding into avoidable crises” due to failure to honour agreements, implement welfare packages, adequately fund universities, and create an enabling environment for teaching, research and learning.
He said the intervention had become necessary because of the persistent failure of the two state governments to act, and noted that despite several meetings, correspondences and assurances from government officials, most of the critical issues affecting members remain unresolved.
Abdullahi said ASUU was calling on the Governments of Niger and Nasarawa States to immediately commence a comprehensive implementation of the 2025 FG/ASUU Agreement, beginning with the approved 40% salary increment for academic staff which remains unimplemented in the affected universities.
He added that the increment was introduced to partially address the long-standing erosion of academics’ salaries caused by inflation and economic realities. The Union also demanded the immediate implementation of Professorial Allowances, saying professors occupy the highest academic rank and bear enormous responsibilities in teaching, research, postgraduate supervision, mentoring and innovation, yet the approved allowances are yet to be paid.
The Zonal Coordinator further listed other outstanding issues requiring urgent resolution, including adequate and predictable funding for both universities. He said both institutions face enormous challenges arising from inadequate financial support, including deteriorating infrastructure, obsolete laboratories, under-equipped libraries, shortage of teaching facilities and insufficient research funding, and stressed that quality university education cannot be achieved through chronic underfunding. ASUU also called for the payment of arrears of Earned Academic Allowance, which it said represents compensation for excess workload resulting from severe shortages of academic staff, and warned that failure to pay the legitimately earned allowances amounts to exploitation of academic labour.
Other demands include payment of arrears of the 25%/35% salary increment, arrears of the ₦70,000 minimum wage, outstanding ₦35,000 wage award, domestication of the Contributory Pension Scheme with remittance of government counterpart contributions, implementation of the retirement age for professors, payment of full salary of retired professors as monthly pension, and completion of the 2025 promotion exercise.
Abdullahi appealed to the Executive Governors of Niger and Nasarawa States, members of the Executive Councils, the State Houses of Assembly, traditional rulers, religious leaders, students, parents and alumni associations to prevail on the respective governments to urgently resolve the issues before they snowball into another avoidable industrial dispute.
He said ASUU Abuja Zone had demonstrated uncommon patience and had consistently chosen dialogue over confrontation, while honouring every invitation for negotiation by the various Visitors or their representatives. However, he warned that the Union cannot continue to watch while public universities are systematically weakened through neglect and poor governance, and that industrial harmony cannot exist where agreements are routinely dishonoured. “And in the case of these institutions, industrial harmony can no longer be guaranteed. A government that neglects its universities mortgages the future of its people. The future is now. The responsibility is yours,” he said.
