ASUU Suspends Two-Week Warning Strike, Gives FG One Month to Seal 2009 Agreement Talks

Nigeria’s university lecturers have suspended their two-week warning strike, granting the Federal Government a one-month window to finalise the renegotiation of the long-standing 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and address other unresolved issues in the tertiary education sector.

ASUU President, Professor Chris Piwuna, made the announcement on Wednesday in Abuja, saying the decision followed “fruitful engagements” with government representatives and key interventions from the National Assembly.

The union had embarked on the warning strike on October 13, 2025, citing the government’s alleged neglect of previous appeals to resolve lingering concerns around lecturers’ welfare and the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.

“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,” Piwuna said. “The government had ignored our repeated overtures to address issues critical to the survival of Nigeria’s public universities.”

Following the strike, the Federal Government re-engaged ASUU through a committee led by Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, which met with union officials on October 16 and 18 to review the draft renegotiated agreement.

While not all demands were met, Piwuna noted that “significant progress” had been achieved compared to the pre-strike period. “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,” he added.

He commended the Senate Committees on Tertiary Education and TETFund, and Labour, as well as the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin, for mediating in the crisis and helping to revive dialogue between the union and the government.

After an emergency meeting of ASUU’s National Executive Council (NEC) held between October 21 and 22, the union resolved to suspend the warning strike to “create a conducive atmosphere for further engagement.”

“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 declared.

The development has temporarily eased tensions across public universities, though many lecturers remain cautious, insisting that the government must use the one-month window to deliver tangible results.