The Federal Government on Monday said it has addressed every request made by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), insisting there is no justification for the union’s ongoing strike.
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, maintaining that claims of government inaction were incorrect.
“We have addressed every single request by ASUU; there is no need for this strike, and we are pleading with them to go back to school. We need to keep our children in school,” he said.
Alausa disclosed that the government had paid ₦50 billion in earned academic allowance arrears, which have now been mainstreamed into lecturers’ salaries to prevent future backlogs.
He added that the administration had also addressed issues regarding postgraduate supervision allowances and needs assessment funds, noting that ₦150 billion was approved in the 2026 budget, with ₦50 billion already released.
The minister further said promotion arrears would be cleared in the 2026 appropriation, assuring that the root causes of the arrears had been resolved.
His remarks came after ASUU declared a two-week warning strike beginning Monday, October 13, 2025, citing the government’s failure to meet its demands.
Alausa appealed to the union to reconsider its decision, stressing that President Bola Tinubu remains committed to fair engagement with labour unions and sustaining stability in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.
